Muv-Luv: Breaking the Tide
by HitokiriOTD
Summary: Shirogane Takeru had been through hell more times than even he knew. Fighting through despair, failure, and the death of all he held dear, he fulfilled his goals and earned his rest. Yet, somewhere among the unlimited universes, a voice still calls out for him.
1. When the shining time disappears

**Muv-Luv: Breaking the Tide**

**Chapter 1 / When the shining time disappears**

By HitokiriOTD

#

_I had a dream._

_It was a dream of people living in the constant shadow of death and despair, without ever experiencing true peace. _

_I had a dream._

_It was a dream of people risking their lives and living for the sake of protecting something, in a world where mankind teetered on the brink of extinction._

_In my dream, I fought in that world over and over again. I learned about how fragile life was, about the meaning of peace, about war and death, despair and hope, sacrifice and resolve, and so many other things._

_I saw humanity's extinction. _

_I saw humanity's salvation._

_But victory came with a heavy price. All my comrades, my friends… my loved ones died for it. _

_In the end, I was the only one left._

_They would say it was worth it. And, at the end of the dream, I agreed. Their sacrifices had meaning. Compared to the horrifying vision of human extinction I had witnessed, the terrible cost was worth it. _

_But I still think about them. In my dreams, I always end up standing beneath the bare branches of the cherry blossom trees, where the spirits of all the fallen soldiers rested. _

_I remember them. I remember how they lived, their smiles, their struggles, their good points and their bad points…_

_I remember how they died. _

_I wasn't able to protect them._

_Humanity didn't lose. Everything was worth that. _

_But still… _

…_I remember…_

…_I wasn't able to protect them._

#

Shirogane Takeru woke up as dawn's early light peeked through the gaps in his white bedroom window curtains. Once, his eyes would have been full of tears after having that strange dream, distorting the familiar sight of his bedroom ceiling. Now, after almost two years of it, his eyes were dry… if a bit crusty. Maybe that meant he had become used to it.

But time hadn't quite eased the heavy weight of grief that seemed to settle in his stomach every time he had those dreams. He couldn't clearly remember much about his dreams, and what little he did remember usually faded after he woke, but the overpowering emotions they invoked took longer to disappear. Fear, anger, sadness, love, triumph, and so many other feelings swirled around in his gut… including regret.

Always regret.

Takeru sighed as he listened to the sounds of birds chirping outside. "It's way too early for me to wake up," he complained softly to himself, his voice hoarse from sleep, when it became clear he wouldn't be getting more rest anytime soon.

"Uuuuu," Sumika whined sleepily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "That's…" she yawned, "…right. It's waaaay too early, Takeru-chan."

"Sorry, Sumika," he smiled apologetically. The image of her as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, combined with the strange shapes her disheveled long red hair made, made it easy for him to smile despite the lingering sense of sorrow. "Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah," she scowled at him.

His smile faded. "Sorry," he said guiltily.

Normally, accidentally waking Sumika up would not be anywhere near his list of things to feel guilty about. She frankly had it coming, after all the atrocities she had committed in the name of waking him up. And yet… he felt really bad for some reason. It was like he'd somehow failed her. It was a strange and horrible sensation.

"Takeru-chan," Sumika's eyes widened slightly as she took in his expression. "You had that dream again?" she asked, her annoyed expression quickly morphing into a concerned look.

He winced. The dreams had been coming often for a long time, and always affected him deeply, especially in the beginning. Of course Sumika had noticed. It would have been hard for her not to when he had started crying when he laid eyes on her. That was just lame. At least he no longer woke up weeping after the first few times. That had been embarrassing.

Takeru forced another smile. "Don't worry about it," he gently touched her hand in reassurance.

"…Okay," she agreed reluctantly, squeezing his hand back. Despite her words, the look she was giving him made it clear that she didn't think it was okay at all. "But, Takeru-chan, even if you don't want to tell me, you need to talk to someone about this."

"I'm not going to see a psychiatrist," was Takeru's automatic response. Sumika had been bugging him to talk to someone about his dreams for some time.

"That's not what I meant!" she shook her head in denial, sending her long red hair twirling. "I just… You're going to see Yuuko-sensei later today, right?"

Takeru blinked, confused by the abrupt change in topic, "Yeah…?"

Sumika took his hand between hers. "Promise me you'll at least talk to her about it?" she pleaded.

"Why her?" he asked, even more bewildered.

"Sensei is really smart, and I'm sure she can give you good advice. Besides, Takeru-chan…" Sumika's smile looked slightly wistful for some reason, "haven't you asked her for advice tons of times in the past?"

He could only nod in response. Yuuko-sensei was crazy smart and sometimes just plain crazy, but she was reliable when it counted. By the end of high school, she had become the first teacher that came to his mind when he needed advice on something. Marimo-chan was soothing and could always be relied on to provide a listening ear, but it was Yuuko he tended to turn to for advice, even if it often wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"Fine," he grunted reluctantly. "I'll talk to her about them when I see her." Mostly, it was her pleading eyes that swayed him. Somehow that look had become a lot more effective after she'd admitted her feelings to him.

Sumika sighed in relief at his agreement and gave him a gentle smile, "Thanks, Takeru-chan."

With that resolved, Takeru idly wondered what to do next. There wasn't really any point in trying to get back to sleep. It tended to take him a long time to fall asleep after waking up from one of those dreams, and there were only a couple of hours before he would normally wake up anyway. Rather than trying, Takeru got out of bed and began to get dressed.

"You're going running this early?" Sumika asked disbelievingly as she saw him putting on his running clothes.

"Yup."

"Ahhh… What happened to the old lazy Takeru-chan?" she sighed to herself, sounding almost wistful.

Physical training was a habit that had come around the same time as the dreams. Sumika still didn't seem to believe the change. Takeru didn't even understand where it had come from himself, so he couldn't blame her much. It was just some mysterious instinct he couldn't explain.

Still, he couldn't let that kind of comment pass without response.

He struck, lighting quick. His patented Sumika-chop hit with great effect.

"Ow!" Sumika squealed indignantly, her hands covering her head in reflex. "What was that for?!"

"Don't call me lazy!" Takeru responded irately.

A fierce scowl twisted Sumika's face. "You're horrible!" she complained. "How could you do that to your girlfriend? Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stu—Ow!"

"Stop calling me stupid!"

"I can't believe you did it again!" Sumika stumbled out of bed, clutching her head with her hands while glaring angrily at him.

Takeru folded his arms. "You deserved it," he stated with conviction.

Sumika's hands curled into fists. His childhood friend adopted a boxing stance. He might have enjoyed the sight of her moving around dressed in nothing more than an oversized shirt of his if he hadn't suddenly been struck with a deep sense of trepidation.

"Uh…" Takeru took a nervous step back, raising his hands up towards her in a warding gesture. "Sumika… let's talk about this, okay?"

"Takeru-chan." Unholy fire seemed to burn within Sumika's eyes.

"…Yes?"

"Drill Milky Punch!"

"Agaaaa!"

#

The Mitsurugi family was spectacularly crazy.

Takeru was reminded of this every time he left his house for his morning run. Once, his house had been located on a normal suburban street. Now, it was located in the heart of a massive private compound that looked like someone had decided to transplant an entire forest in the middle of a dense urban area, then decided the perfect finishing touch would be a giant feudal palace. It still boggled his mind when he thought about how many people Meiya and Yuuhi had bribed to move so they could claim the land.

He was also reminded of that fact every time he returned from his morning physical training to meet Tsukuyomi Mana, who demonstrated her ninja-like abilities every time they met in the Mitsurugi's dojo. Who in the real world had actual ninja-maids? Given Meiya and Yuuhi's level of common sense, Takeru suspected that someone in the Mitsurugi family had seen some anime or manga with ninja-maids in it and taken it entirely seriously.

Crazy.

The aforementioned ninja-maid cleared her throat. "Are you done daydreaming, Takeru-sama?" Tsukuyomi asked politely.

She had shed her maid uniform in favor of set of stylish looking workout clothes for their training, complete with bike shorts that looked like they'd been painted on and a distractingly tight top, and put her long green hair up in an athletic looking pony tail. Takeru thought she looked more like a model in an ad to sell gym memberships than a refined maid of the Mitsurugi family at the moment.

"Ugh," Takeru groaned, staring up at the wooden ceiling of the dojo in a daze. He couldn't feel his limbs. "I think… you broke… my back," he panted.

"Ohohoho," she laughed heartlessly. "Again with your jokes, Takeru-sama. Please get up or we will not be able to finish in time for breakfast."

It took a few more moments before Takeru's world stopped spinning. He staggered to his feet unsteadily, wondering again why he was subjecting himself to such torture every day. The answer eluded him today, just like it had every day since that strange October more than a year ago when Meiya, Yuuhi, and Kasumi appeared in his life and the dreams started. But whatever the reason, somehow he kept at it. Some unknown force within kept driving him.

So he trained. At first, he'd approached Meiya for help learning hand to hand combat. Tsukuyomi had ended up taking over as his teacher when he started to strain Meiya's unarmed limits, a feat which had surprised everyone, himself included. His body just seemed to know how to fight; the only thing it had lacked in the beginning was the physical conditioning to support it. That had freaked him out for weeks, and it still bothered him when he dwelled on it, but he had eventually decided to just accept it and go on training.

"Okay," Takeru huffed, eyeing Tsukuyomi cautiously. "I'm up. Let's—Geh!"

Without wasting words, Tsukuyomi darted forward, covering the distance between them in an instant. Takeru moved backwards at an angle, deflecting her opening strike. His follow up attempt to lock her arm was foiled, as was his maneuver to get behind her. At least he was able to avoid her viciously fast counters. Takeru's mind was empty as he traded strikes and counterstrikes with Tsukuyomi, his body moving on autopilot.

The entire exchange lasted only a few seconds. It ended in an instant, as Takeru succeeded in breaking through Tsukuyomi's guard and taking her balance, driving her to the ground. Takeru followed her to the floor, intent on pinning her down.

She struggled fiercely, but was unable to get out of his hold. Finally, she relaxed and smiled wryly. "...It is your victory, Takeru-sama," she conceded.

Takeru grinned triumphantly, ecstatic at increasing his slim amount of wins against her by one.

Tsukuyomi cleared her throat. "You may get off me now," she said, her cheeks dusted with pink.

"Eh?" Takeru blinked. "Ah… right," he flushed as he noticed how intimately their bodies we pressed together. Still… despite Tsukuyomi's incredible fitness, her body still felt remarkably soft beneath him.

_...really soft…_

Unmoving, he continued to stare down at the woman in a daze. The way she looked back at him, her eyes wide, breathing slightly uneven, was bewitching to Takeru. Unconsciously, he lowered his head closer to her.

"…Takeru-sama!" Tsukuyomi finally squeaked out a soft, flustered protest at his slight movement.

He shook his head like a wet dog, trying to clear his mind of the suddenly dangerous line of thought_. This is Tsukuyomi-san!_ _What was I thinking? She'd kill me if I did anything weird to her! _The fact that she could have easily dislodged him at any time didn't occur to Takeru.

"Takeru-sama." There was a faint note of warning in her voice.

"Right, sorry!" he blurted out an apology, quickly letting her go and jumping to his feet. Nervously, Takeru retreated a few steps, as if backing away from a dangerous snake he had startled.

The maid stood slowly and began absently smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles in her training clothes. "That was an impressive take-down," she complimented quietly to fill the awkward atmosphere that had suddenly developed. "You have improved even further than I had thought." Strangely, Takeru thought she sounded almost proud.

"Ah… thanks…" he scratched the back of his head, unsure how to properly respond. "But… it's really all thanks to your teaching skills. You really are amazing, Tsukuyomi-san."

"I… see," Tsukuyomi stuttered slightly, looking away from him.

Awkward silence once again filled the dojo. Takeru wondered if he had said the wrong thing after all. Tsukuyomi didn't look mad, but she didn't look particularly happy at his words either. She kept fidgeting with her clothes, not even looking at him.

"Tsukuyomi," a soft, regal voice cut through the silence.

Tsukuyomi started in surprise, "…Yuuhi-sama!" She whipped around to face the dojo's main entrance with an alarmed, almost guilty expression.

Mitsurugi Yuuhi stood there, smiling. He wondered when she had come in; he hadn't even noticed her arrival. She looked at the strangely nervous maid, her blue eyes gleaming with amusement. "Should you not begin preparations for our morning meal soon?" Yuuhi asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Of course," Tsukuyomi murmured, composing herself and bowing in acknowledgement. "I shall begin at once, Yuuhi-sama."

Within the blink of an eye, she disappeared. Gazing at the empty spot where she had vanished, Takeru thought once again about the craziness of the family that produced people who could even do that. Speaking of which… he turned to greet the new arrival.

"Morning, Yuuhi—Whoa!" he jumped slightly in surprise as he found Yuuhi standing right in front of him, close enough that he could smell the floral scent of the shampoo she had used for her lavender hair.

"Good morning, Takeru-sama," Mitsurugi Yuuhi greeted him, smiling brightly as she offered him a towel.

"Thanks," he said gratefully, using it to wipe of his sweat. Once he was done, she plucked the towel out of his hands without hesitation and thrust a cool water bottle at him. Takeru drank greedily from it. "Ahhh…" he sighed contentedly when he was done drinking. "Thanks, Yuuhi."

"It was nothing," she demurred, blushing charmingly. "It is only a matter of course for me to attend to my future husband."

Takeru choked slightly on his drink and began coughing. It was hardly the first time she had said something like that, but Takeru still wasn't entirely used to it. Even though Yuuhi's personality wasn't generally as bold as Meiya's, she could be astonishingly aggressive about some things. She also seemed to have a particular knack for catching him off guard.

"Oh, my," she murmured in concern, pressing herself closely to his side to rub his back as he coughed. "Are you all right, Takeru-sama?"

"Yeah," he wheezed, his face growing steadily redder at her closeness. His consciousness of his entire body seemed to narrow sharply until all he could seem to feel was the sensation of Yuuhi's breasts pressed against him. All he could see was her beautiful face, close enough that he could feel her breath against his neck. "…Yuuhi," he breathed.

It felt like forever since the last time he'd seen her.

She tilted her head, smiling mischievously. "Yes, Takeru-sama?"

Takeru's heartbeat thundered in his ears. He wrapped an arm around Yuuhi's slender waist, pulling her tighter against him. She made a soft noise in response, which he quickly covered by pressing his lips against hers. Yuuhi melted against him.

When their lips broke apart, Yuuhi was flushed and breathing as hard as he was. Her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him happily. It was difficult for him to resist her when she looked at him like that.

"What…" he cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?" Takeru asked her finally, trying to distract them both with something to talk about. If he forgot where they were and things got too heated, there would be a bloodbath—of his blood—if someone found them. "Your day off isn't until tomorrow."

The Mitsurugi sisters were both very busy helping with their family business, and had been ever since they had finished high school with Takeru. Technically, considering they had both finished their educations before he had even met them, they had no need to attend school with him at all, but they had done so using the excuse that it was necessary to get closer to him. Somehow their family had accepted that, but once he had finished high school they had both been called back to contribute in the family's giant corporation.

Yuuhi was especially busy, given her role as the direct heir and future head of the Mitsurugi family. Normally, he only got to see her one day a week. Even that had been a huge concession by the family head, according to Meiya, who had been astonished that Yuuhi had managed to wring it from their grandfather. Meiya was busy too, but since she wasn't the first in line to take over the Mitsurugi family, she had a lot more freedom than her elder sister did. Theoretically, Meiya only had one day off to rest as well, but unlike Yuuhi she was frequently around in the evenings.

"I was fortunate to receive some additional time off this morning," Yuuhi answered vaguely, waving the question away. "More importantly, Takeru-sama…" she leaned up. Just as she was about to kiss him again, the dojo door was thrown open with tremendous force.

"Aneue!" Meiya exclaimed angrily, scowling at the sight of her older sister clinging to Takeru. "What is the meaning of this?" Meiya demanded as she marched into the room.

Yuuhi released Takeru and stepped back with visible reluctance. "Good morning, Meiya," she greeted her sister politely, ignoring Meiya's dagger like gaze. "I am pleased to see you look well today."

"To you as well," Meiya replied automatically, then blinked and pointed an irate finger at her sister. "Do not try to dodge the subject!" Meiya said sternly. "I asked you, what is the meaning of this? Why are you here with Takeru today? Did we not agree that today was to be my day with Takeru?"

"Indeed," Yuuhi nodded. "However, did you not also seek to monopolize Takeru-sama's attentions two weeks ago on my day with him?"

"Uuu…" Meiya flinched. "That was…"

The two sisters stared at each other for several moments. Takeru imagined sparks flying through the air between their irate gazes. He stood as still as a statue, fervently hoping that if he didn't move he could avoid Meiya's ire.

It didn't work. "—Takeru!" Meiya rounded on him unhappily. "Why are you allowing her to cling to you on today of all days?"

"Um…" he sweated, groping for a response. However, his brain had no great response for this situation. "…sorry," Takeru mumbled.

"Meiya," Yuuhi came to his defense. "It is hardly Takeru-sama's fault."

"Yes," Meiya's sharp gaze snapped back to her sister. "I am fully aware of who is at fault here."

Yuuhi smiled serenely in response. Takeru thought frantically, trying to figure out a way to defuse the situation… or at least some way to escape.

A loud growl erupted from Takeru's stomach, breaking the twins' staring contest and causing them to both turn to look at him. Takeru seized the opportunity. "Ahh…" he released an exaggerated sigh. "Man, I'm hungry!" he patted his stomach. "I'm going to go get cleaned up and then get something to eat!"

Having proclaimed his intentions, Takeru moved briskly to flee from the dojo.

"Wait!"

"Takeru—!"

The sisters called out for him simultaneously. "Sorry," he replied nervously, speeding up. "I'm really hungry, so… let's talk at breakfast, okay?" Hopefully by then Meiya would have calmed down. She was normally good about not holding grudges.

The Mitsurugi sisters released exasperated sighs, once again in sync. "He is good at running away," Meiya grumbled.

Yuuhi hid a smile behind her hand, "Indeed."

Meiya sighed. "…I will overlook this incident for today," she said finally.

"You are very kind, Meiya."

"Do not mock me," Meiya frowned.

"I suppose I shall overlook the incident from last week as well," Yuuhi mused.

"You saw that?!" Meiya blurted in alarm.

Yuuhi's eyes narrowed. "No," she replied, causing Meiya to wince. "But it appears my intuition was not wrong after all." She folded her arms and frowned at her younger sister. "You were seeking Takeru-sama's attentions during my time with him for two weeks in a row?"

"Uuu…" A blush stained Meiya's cheeks as she glanced away in shame. "It is no different than what you were doing earlier," she protested weakly.

"Indeed."

Silence lingered between them for several moments. "I apologize, Aneue," Meiya mumbled finally.

"I apologize as well," Yuuhi replied. After a moment, the two sisters tentatively smiled at each other, the tension between them broken. "Shall we go?"

"Yes," Meiya nodded. Together, Meiya and Yuuhi left the dojo to chase down their fleeing prey.

#

After a tense breakfast, Takeru practically fled his house to make the familiar journey to his old high school to meet with Yuuko. The route was surprisingly busy for a Sunday. Some event was going on in town, though Takeru wasn't quite sure what it was. Even so, he made it to the familiar hill where his old school stood in good time. The cherry blossom trees were in bloom, acting as vivid pink guideposts for the street that ran up the hill.

Takeru entered the mostly empty school and headed towards the physics room. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of students who had come in for club activities and occasionally he saw a teacher catching up on their work in the hallways, but for the most part the school was empty.

"Shirogane-kun? What are you doing here?"

Takeru turned to see Marimo, who had emerged from the room he had just passed holding a stack of papers to her beige knitted sweater.

"Hey Marimo-chan," Takeru greeted her, smiling happily to see his favorite teacher. "Yuuko-sensei called me over for a bit," he explained.

"Yuuko did?" she asked curiously, her long brown skirt swishing around her boot-clad calves as she stepped closer. "Part of your research project with her?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm…" she made a thoughtful noise. "I see."

"What?" Takeru blinked in confusion.

"Nothing," Marimo smiled briefly at him, brushing her hair back. "Umm… Shirogane-kun…" she began hesitantly.

"…What is it?"

Marimo's foot started to trace small circles in the linoleum floor. "I… that is…" she glanced around nervously, swallowing. "Myparentsareintown!" Marimo blurted in a rush, looking at his feet.

Takeru stared blankly at her, "…Huh?"

"And, well… that is… if it's okay with you…" she clutched the papers even more tightly to her voluptuous chest. "I'd like… you to… meet them…"

"Okay," Takeru agreed, not sure why she was so flustered.

"I mean—!" Marimo continued quickly. "It's been almost a year now… since we… and it's not like you're my student anymore… and I'm not getting any younger… almost thirty… all my old classmates are building families… my parents have been pressuring me… and then, the other day you said… that is…" she rapidly babbled for a minute, so fast Takeru could only grasp pieces of what she was trying to say. Finally, she trailed off, her head jerking up to stare at him. "…'Okay?'" Marimo mouthed.

"Yeah," he smiled. Watching Marimo get flustered was adorable. "Okay." Really, who got so nervous about having a friend meet their parents? Marimo-chan was just too cute sometimes.

"Thank you, Shirogane-kun~!" Marimo mewled tearfully in relief, stepping up to hug him. "Thank you for accepting meeee… thank youuu…"

Takeru patted her slender back reassuringly, though he wasn't quite sure why she was so grateful, and nervously hoped no one showed up to witness the scene.

After she had recovered her composure, Marimo stepped back, still sniffling slightly. She wiped her face with a hand and smiled radiantly at him. "I'll call you once I get the reservations taken care of, okay?"

"Sure," he nodded.

"Then… I'll let you go see Yuuko," Marimo said reluctantly. "See you later?"

"See you later," he nodded, smiling.

Grinning happily, Marimo twirled around and practically skipped down the hall.

Takeru watched her go, appreciating the sight of the lovely teacher bouncing away for a moment before turning to continue towards the physics room where Yuuko worked.

#

_I had a dream._

_It was a dream of— _

"That's interesting," Kouzuki Yuuko interrupted, giving him an impatient look over the rim of the paper coffee cup she cradled in her hands. "But I didn't ask you over here to listen to your nighttime fantasies."

"I start to pour my heart out to you, and that's your response!?" Shirogane Takeru retorted incredulously. "What kind of teacher are you?"

"I'm not your teacher anymore."

"Geh!" Takeru made a frustrated noise in response to her instant counter.

That was true. Takeru technically wasn't her student anymore, at least not officially. He had started meeting with Yuuko outside on a semi-regular basis towards the end of his final year in high school. It had all started when Takeru's dreams had started featuring the day in class when Yuuko had started discussing her Quantum Causality Theory. When it kept repeating night after night, Takeru had finally bit the bullet and gone to Yuuko to ask about her theory. In the process, she'd mistaken his curiosity for a desire to become her research assistant—that is, her gopher—and he'd been stuck ever since.

"Besides, I'm a physics teacher, not a counselor. I never had any obligation to listen to your problems in the first place." After delivering those cold words, Yuuko took a sip of coffee, then sighed and placed the cup down on the table and leaned forward towards him. "Well?" the physics teacher asked expectantly.

"Well, what?" Takeru asked uncooperatively, sulking.

She glared. "Did you play it?"

"…yes…"

"And?"

"It sucked."

"I know, right!?" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together and beaming at him. "It really was a shitty game! I can't believe it sold as much as it did." Yuuko paused, coughed slightly, and schooled her expression. "And?" she asked again, tilting her head.

"The trigger was the time traveling robot's multi-dimensional gun," Takeru stated, confident in his conclusion.

His latest assignment had been to play the game that had led to her epiphany and caused her to rework her theory, and then he had to identify what about the game had been the trigger for her.

It was a lot harder than it sounded. It had taken him most of a day to track the game down in the first place, since it had become an obscure item only found deep in the bargain bins of used game shops. Then it had taken more than a week for him to actually beat the thing. It was tortuously long, and every minute had been frustrating and painfully monotonous. Only sheer willpower had enabled him to slog through the game without giving up and pitching his Game Guy console out the window.

It was a seriously bad game.

To Takeru, the biggest mystery of all was why Yuuko had actually bothered to play through the whole thing in the first place.

"Exactly," Yuuko nodded, looking pleased. "You really understand how I think! I knew there was a reason you were my favorite student."

"You just said earlier you weren't my teacher!"

She flicked a delicate wrist dismissively, "Don't be so nitpicky."

Takeru suppressed a frustrated groan. She really drove him crazy sometimes. "So, now that I finished that stupid game like you asked, what's next?" he asked.

"Hmm," Yuuko tapped a finger to her lips thoughtfully. After a moment, she snapped her fingers. "Next, you need to get me another cappuccino," she announced.

"I just brought you one!"

"Yes, but…" she pouted and shook the cup slightly. "Now I'm almost out."

"No way!" Takeru folded his arms stubbornly. He was tired of being her gopher. She wasn't a teacher, she was just a tyrant! Well, he wouldn't bow to her selfish whims so easily.

"Please?" Yuuko pleaded, bending forward towards him, a move which displayed an astonishing view of her spectacular cleavage. Involuntarily, Takeru's eyes were drawn to the view she displayed.

A small part of his brain raised alarm klaxons, recognizing her ploy. But most of Takeru's brain was slowly falling under Yuuko's spell. Yuuko-sensei may have terrified him in some ways, and he deeply respected her intellect, but he was a young man in the prime of his life, and she was one of the most gorgeous women he had ever seen. It didn't hurt that her shapely, voluptuous chest seemed to emit a gravitational pull his eyes were helpless to resist.

"No…" he repeated half-heartedly, his will to resist dropping rapidly.

She looked at him with wide, pleading violet eyes. "Please~?" the young teacher asked again, childishly drawing out the syllables.

"I…" Takeru shook his head weakly, "…won't…"

"Shirogane…" she purred, bringing an arm up under her breasts. The effect nearly caused his eyes to pop out. "If you get me another one, I'll think about… reenacting… our last Christmas party together."

Takeru's mind instantly conjured up the memory of Yuuko dressed in an extremely skimpy Santa outfit, her cheeks flushed from alcohol. It was quickly followed by another memory of her without the skimpy outfit. His memory of the whole night was spotty, since he'd drunk a lot of sake himself, but even so several vivid images stood out.

It had been an incredible—and kind of terrifying—Christmas party.

"You… remember that?" Takeru asked nervously, his voice catching in the middle. He'd always thought she had forgotten; at least, she had always pretended she didn't remember. It had mostly been a relief to think so.

"I've never gotten so drunk that I've forgotten anything," she replied, looking amused at his suddenly fearful expression.

"But, you… you said…"

Her smile turned sly, "Oh? I don't recall ever saying I forgot about that."

Of course not, Takeru thought. It was typical Yuuko-sensei. She'd just made extremely leading comments to guide him to the conclusion she had wanted. Yuuko could be the most confusing woman he had ever met, and given the strange women he was surrounded by, that was really saying something.

"I…" he trailed off, confused. "Why now?" Takeru managed.

She shrugged slightly, "Why not?"

Takeru couldn't believe where the conversation was headed. He wondered if he was having one of those lucid dreams. "Yuuko-sensei… do you even like me that way?"

Yuuko's smile faded, replaced by a frown. She met his gaze evenly. "Do you really think I would bring it up if I didn't?" she asked quietly.

Danger! Takeru's instincts screamed at him. "No!" he blurted quickly, shaking his head in denial.

"Good."

What was going on? Takeru felt more confused than ever. Had Yuuko-sensei just basically confessed that she liked him as a man? How had they even gotten from discussing a shitty video game to this? What was he supposed to say?

"Umm… I… That is, Sumika is…" he babbled.

"Oh?" Yuuko raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to bring that up?"

"Wha-?"

"Kagami," she raised a finger. "The Mitsurugi sisters. Sakaki. Ayamine. Tamase. Yoroi. " Seven fingers were raised.

"Umm…" Takeru sweated.

"Plus, you seem to meet with Marimo quite a bit, despite not being her student anymore," Yuuko interrupted, now holding up eight fingers. "And I don't even want to guess what depraved things you've subjected Yashiro to." She held up a ninth finger.

"She's like a sister to me!" he blurted in automatic protest.

The ninth finger remained stubbornly up as she ignored his objection. "I don't think one more would make much of a difference at this point, do you, Mr. Love Nucleus?"

Yuuko remained a proponent of her theory that he was a love nucleus, possessing a force resembling how electromagnetism held electrons around a nucleus, only in his case the electrons were women and he was the nucleus.

Over time, Takeru had slowly come to believe in her theory as well. At the very least, he believed that something beyond common sense had to be involved in his complicated relationship with the women in his life. Some strange, invisible force had to be responsible for the fact that the girls had neither killed him nor abandoned him yet, despite being in a relationship that had far exceeded triangles and squares and was now easier described as spoked wheel.

"…no…" Takeru mumbled, overwhelmed by the implications of Yuuko's proposal yet unable to refuse.

"Great!" In the blink of an eye, Yuuko went from serious to cheerful. "Then you won't mind getting me another cappuccino, will you?"

Feeling strangely defeated, Takeru could only nod. "Okay…" he mumbled, dazed.

"When you're done, we'll discuss the paper you'll be writing on how the game and the Quantum Causality Theory are related. And then…" her voice abruptly dropped into a smoky purr, "…we can discuss… other matters."

"Ri—right," Takeru stuttered, a shiver going down his spine at the look she gave him.

"Well?" Yuuko made a shooing motion. "Get going."

Takeru got going.

He had never fetched coffee so fast in his life.

#

"Thank you, Tsukuyomi-san! It was delicious!" Sumika praised Tsukuyomi's dinner.

"Yeah," Takeru agreed between mouthfuls. "Thanks. It's really good."

Tsukuyomi was Takeru's favorite cook. She wasn't quite at the level of some of the famous chefs Meiya used to bring in to make him lunch, but she wasn't far off either. She'd also stealthily studied Sumika and his mom's cooking to discover the secrets behind the food Takeru had grown up eating. The end results had thoroughly blown Sumika's cooking out of the water, though the one time he'd absently made the mistake of saying so Sumika had made him painfully regret it.

For some reason, Sumika had glared at him and Tsukuyomi for weeks after that. Takeru was just glad that Sumika had eventually gotten over it.

"Thank you very much," Tsukuyomi smiled, pleased, and bowed slightly. "I am pleased that the food is not too cold for your liking," she murmured pointedly, shooting Takeru a cold glance before she retreated gracefully into the kitchen.

Takeru choked on a mouthful of rice. _Damn you, Tsukuyomi! You traitor!_

Takeru felt his palms grow clammy as the full force of Sumika's glower fell on him. He glanced away from Sumika, only to find Meiya studying him intensely. Nervously, he glanced at Kasumi, who continued to calmly, methodically eat. But her stoic silver eyes were fixed on him as well, and seemed almost accusing to Takeru's imagination.

"Takeru-chan."

He meticulously studied the grains in wood of the table, which seemed to be about the only safe place to look. "…yes?" Takeru replied reluctantly.

"You were pretty late for dinner." It would have sounded like a casual observation, except for the fact that her voice was cold enough to snap freeze a lake. "Why?"

"I too would like to hear the answer," Meiya said quietly, placing her chopsticks down with an ominous clack.

"Yuuko-sensei had a lot of errands for me to run…?" Takeru cursed himself as soon as he heard the words leaving his mouth. Why did he have to make it sound like he was asking them!?

"I see," Sumika nodded. Her eyes narrowed into slits. "And why do you have a hickey on your neck?!" she demanded.

Instinctively, he slapped a hand over his neck. A fire blazed to life in Sumika's crimson eyes.

"Takeru," Meiya looked at him searchingly. "Surely, on our promised day… you wouldn't have…?"

_I'm going to die._

Something in his expression must have told them something, since the two girls shot to their feet. Takeru's skin crawled at the oppressive feeling in the air. His martial instincts blared a warning.

_This is… killing intent!_

He stumbled at of his chair and backpedaled away from the bloodthirsty girls.

"I really did have to run a lot of errands today!" Takeru protested.

"So Yuuko-sensei didn't give you that hickey?" Sumika questioned coldly, stepping towards him.

"Um…" he stuttered, his tongue tied. Shirogane Takeru was not a very good liar. This was a trait they loved about him, but he hated himself for at the moment.

"I see," Meiya murmured, shaking her head. Her look of disappointment was almost as painful as Sumika's impending fist would be.

Almost.

"Ta… ke… ru… chan," the avatar of his doom rumbled.

"Meiya, help!" Meiya's lips pursed slightly at his voice, but his cry for help was ignored.

"Kasumi!" he glanced desperately at the silver haired teen watching from the table. Minutely, she shook her head, her rabbit ear like ribbons swaying at the motion.

Takeru's back hit a wall. "Sumika… let's talk about this, okay?" he pleaded for the second time that day, his voice shaking slightly. The demon continued to advance relentlessly, alien to the concepts of pity or mercy.

"Drill Milky Phantom!"

"Not the phantom—!" Takeru screamed.

An instant later, Sumika's ultimate one-hit-kill attack smashed into him, and his world went dark.

#

Daylight stung Takeru's eyes as he woke. He blinked, squinting at the beige ceiling of his bedroom until his pupils adjusted to the light.

His head throbbed.

_Sumika, you idiot, that _really_ hurt!_ _I'd almost prefer you stick to the usual Drill Milky Punch in the future._

…

_Or rather, just stop hitting me._

The Phantom variant of Sumika's signature attack was just way too dangerous. Okay, so maybe he'd deserved it, but still… Takeru's head felt like it was about to split open, his whole body seemed to ache, and a strange tingling feeling was going up and down his spine like a busy elevator.

At least it was blessedly quiet. The normal racket that filled his house in the morning would really make his head throb.

…

It was actually… unusually quiet.

There was a strange feeling in his gut.

Something was wrong.

He sat up slowly and glanced around his room warily. It looked the same as always. The air conditioning unit above his bed, his kickass Jet Syndrome poster, his bookshelves and desk… everything seemed normal. But still, there was something wrong.

It was 08:00 in the morning, but no one had woken him up. Sumika wasn't next to him, or making a commotion in the kitchen, or even banging on the door outside. Kasumi wasn't quietly nudging his shoulder. Meiya and Yuuhi hadn't snuck in again. Tsukuyomi wasn't politely knocking. The Three Idiots weren't making a ruckus. He couldn't really remember the last time he had woken up peacefully alone.

It was just strange.

Though, in retrospect, he supposed that wasn't surprising, given how mad Sumika and Meiya had been.

A part of him had known that he shouldn't have taken Yuuko-sensei up on her offer, but… Yuuko was just too beautiful, and... Something about her stirred feelings in him beyond just lust that he couldn't hold back, just like with the others. She was a constant presence in his strange dreams, someone important to him.

Sumika, Meiya, and the others would understand. For some bizarre reason that he had never been able to comprehend, they always did. His biggest regret was in disappointing Meiya by missing out on the time he had promised to spend with her. That had been a real jerk move.

Somehow, he'd have to come up with a way to make it up to her…

The strange feeling in his gut intensified.

_Meiya._

Takeru's head snapped back to the wall by his desk.

The door to Meiya's room wasn't there.

He stared at the wall in confusion.

Memories flashed before his eyes. He remembered the day the door had first mysteriously appeared there, what seemed like a lifetime ago. He remembered Meiya coming in and out of it, smiling at him, frowning at him, talking with him... for a girl he'd only met about two years ago, he had so many memories of her.

"_Okay then, let's grow up, marry each other, and have our birthdays together." _He'd been a crazy little kid without a clue what he was really proposing. All he'd wanted to do was snap his newfound friend out of her depression.

But she had believed his words. _"We can do that," _Meiya had agreed thoughtfully.

"_Okay, it's a promise!"_

"_Yes, a promise," _she'd agreed again, happily.

Then she'd spent years holding onto his careless words like a treasure.

"_Takeru, I am glad that we may spend this time together."_

And when they met again, he'd not only forgotten her, but replaced her in his memories with Sumika.

"_I wanted to see you, hear your voice, and feel your presence… I will say it as many times as you want."_

"…_even for me, dreams are not…"_

He remembered the day the door disappeared, because he had been too stupid to remember his promise with her on time…

…That wasn't right.

Meiya had never left… had she?

"…_at the very least… at the very least, I want… you, the man I love… to be the one… to send me to my grave…!"_

What?

That wasn't… that couldn't be…

Takeru grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling his headache worsening. Memories tumbled through his skull like rocks in a washing machine. He remembered so many things, things that had happened, things that couldn't possibly have happened. Black spots danced before his eyes and for a moment Takeru saw double.

To steady himself, Takeru took several deep, slow breaths, carefully focusing all his attention on his breathing.

Something was really wrong.

The feeling in his gut had transformed into a bone-deep certainty.

Takeru shook his head, trying to clear away his strange sense of anxiety. "I can't stay here all day daydreaming," Takeru told himself firmly. At the very least, he could start his day as normal. His first class at the university wasn't until 10:00, so he still had plenty of time, even if Sumika and Kasumi had both atypically failed to act as alarm clocks. But he couldn't waste too much time unless he wanted to skip out on breakfast.

Within minutes, he was dressed and ready. Takeru grabbed his bag and headed for the door, only to pause for a moment with his hand hovering over the doorknob. Uneasy, he glanced back at the wall where Meiya's door had been, and then to his window where Sumika's house stood. Shaking his head again to clear his thoughts, he opened the door and headed to the kitchen.

Something was really, really wrong.

Takeru stared at the empty kitchen, where no food awaited him. Tsukuyomi was conspicuously absent, and Sumika remained elusive in the kitchen as well. His parents remained a distant memory, not that he'd held much hope of seeing them when they were off on another Mitsurugi-funded world tour. At this point, he would have even been glad to see Meiya's lethal, explosive culinary techniques at work. But there was no evidence that any of them had even been near the kitchen.

The house was eerily silent, except for the sound of Takeru's own heartbeat. A sensation of déjà vu hammered Takeru like a storm surge.

Something was wrong, but also… strangely familiar.

_I had a dream._

This had happened before.

_A dream of people living innocently, without knowing the meaning of peace._

With leaden feet, Takeru made his way to the front door.

_I had a dream._

No.

_A dream of people risking their lives and living for the sake of protecting something._

It wasn't possible.

_I think...only God knows which it was._

Takeru jerked the front door open and stepped outside.

A mournful wind sighed through the empty streets and between the ruined houses. A ruined city greeted Shirogane Takeru, as it had so many times before. His house stood, battered but still standing. The same could not be said for Sumika's house, which lay crushed beneath the corpse of a giant, robotic war machine.

_So it wasn't… a dream…_

His headache was gone.

Memories clicked into place.

"It was supposed to be over," the whispered words tumbled out of Takeru without volition. "…damn it."

He stared numbly at the ruined blue Gekishin. Details from another time, another world flickered through his mind.

_Type-77/F4J Gekishin. An old first-generation Tactical Surface Fighter. Tough, but clunky and slow. _A lot of F4 pilots would have disagreed with Takeru's assessment. But he had been spoiled by piloting the Type-97 Fubuki, which despite being a trainer was based on third-generation TSF technology, and the Type-94 Shiranui, which was a full blown third-generation fighter. He hadn't been particularly impressed by the Gekishin he had piloted, even though it'd been a relatively new Block 214 variant. It just hadn't been capable of moving the way he had wanted it to.

"But…" he blinked, perplexed. "I never used a Gekishin… did I?"

Takeru didn't think he had.

Except… he remembered…

That's right, of course he had. The very first time around, his squad had been assigned the Gekishin as their primary TSF. He'd spent years piloting one.

How had he forgotten…?

"Ah, geez!" he ran his fingers through his hair roughly. "I hate this!" Stupid quantum causality bullshit was messing with his head again. It was supposed to be over. He wasn't even supposed to be a causality conductor anymore. "Why is this happening?" he demanded in frustration, looking up at the sky.

According to Yuuko-sensei's theory, it had been Sumika who had made him into a causality conductor, along with something about the effects of the G-Bombs that he hadn't really understood. Without her, there shouldn't have been anything to pull him back to this world in the first place. But… if that was really the case, how was he here again?

No answer came to him. Not that he'd expected any. Answers in this world didn't come easily.

"Damn it," he said again wearily. Reality was sinking in. He was back. It didn't really matter how or why at this point. The truth was that he was back in a world at war with the BETA. It was a war that would be lost, unless he did something again.

Takeru marched back inside the house. It remained pristinely like his house in his peaceful world for now. Eventually the house would go back to the ruined state it really was in, though it made absolutely no sense to Takeru either way, but for now he would take advantage of it without looking the gift horse in the mouth.

The desk chair squeaked slightly as Takeru sank down heavily on it. He leaned back, staring at the ceiling as he grappled with the reality of his situation.

For a brief moment, he wanted to scream.

He had been _home._

After everything he had seen and done, he had finally, finally made it home. He had lived in peace surrounded by the girls he loved in what he could only look back on as a utopia. All he'd had to worry about was balancing his massively complicated relationship with the girls, and some troubled dreams.

Shirogane Takeru had clawed his way back to heaven.

Now he had been thrown down to hell once more.

Yet again, he would have to go to war.

There was no question in his mind that he had to take action. His long dormant memories blazed through his thoughts. Among the heaviest of those were his memories of humanity's defeat; of Alternative V and the futile struggle that had followed. His memories after the migrant fleet had left were hazy, but he knew he had borne witness to the inevitable defeat of humanity on Earth.

It could never be allowed to happen again. Not while Takeru was here, not while his lungs still drew breath. He would protect humanity and its home world.

**Prevent Alternative V.**

The words were burned into his brain.

To prevent Alternative V, Alternative IV had to succeed like last time.

Takeru's thoughts skipped like a jostled record.

…last time…

"_Goodbye. The yakisoba bread was delicious."_

"Ayamine."

Shirogane's eyes misted, remembering her final letter. It was just like her to end her last words on a joking note, as if she hadn't confessed her love a few lines before.

"_My dream is still for everyone to be happy. I want everyone I love, everyone in the world to smile happily together. That dream won't change."_

"Tama."

It was a struggle for him to banish the image of her broken corpse, but the sincere, positive words she had left for him helped Takeru supplant it with the image of the living Tama.

"_Finally, there's one last thing I want to tell you, Takeru. This will be the last time you have to put up with my antics, so bear with it. I've been hiding it for a long time, but I love you, Takeru. …A__s a girl, of course.__"_

"Mikoto."

She'd said she would write in her usual style, but her letter had remained lucid from start to finish. In the end, he regretted that he'd never told her that he had started to see her as a girl.

"_Finally, please forgive me for being cowardly, selfish and weak enough to write this. I loved you."_

"Class Rep… Chizuru."

More than anyone, her straightforward words had surprised him the most. He had only glimpsed the surface of the burdens that had weighed her down, and he'd never even guessed what her true feelings were. He really was as dumb as she'd accused him of being.

"…_at the very least… at the very least, I want… you, the man I love… to be the one… to send me to my grave…!"_

"…Meiya."

She had loved him. And he had killed her.

"_I was able to fight hard until the end…. because of the Santa rabbit you gave me, Takeru-chan. Thank you… so much… so, so much…"_

"…Sumika."

Takeru ground his teeth together, his nails digging sharply into his palms at the overpowering memories that assaulted him. Memories of his comrades… his friends… the girls he had loved… filled his vision. He remembered living with them in his original, peaceful world, and he remembered fighting with them in a world consumed by war.

Most of all, he remembered that he had failed to protect them.

They had died.

That was unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

This time, he had to make sure it went better than the last. This time, he would bring the people that were precious to him home. After falling in love and being loved in return, to lose them again… he didn't think he could survive it.

**Save my friends.**

Takeru etched the goal deeply into his brain. He would not and could not fail them again.

**Defeat the BETA and save humanity.**

It was the only way to end it all. Somehow, someway, no matter how unrealistic it seemed, the BETA had to be defeated and driven from Earth. There would still be countless BETA out there, among the stars, but if they could at least reclaim Earth, humanity could gain some breathing room. If they didn't... no, they just had to. Otherwise, his friends would never have a chance to experience true peace. Otherwise, mankind would eventually tip over the edge to extinction.

"Prevent Alternative V," Takeru said aloud. "Save my friends. And defeat the BETA and save humanity."

Those were his goals.

Just three simple objectives, but between them was a wealth of meaning and a world of obstacles. Even one of them alone would be nearly impossible. Last time, armed with foreknowledge and skill, he had barely managed to prevent Alternative V, and while he had won a great victory against the BETA in helping destroy the Original Hive, he hadn't been able to see the BETA on Earth truly defeated. And during the process, he'd brought untold catastrophe upon another world due to his cowardly behavior.

And… he hadn't been able to save his friends.

But that was last time.

Shirogane Takeru had fought and despaired and ultimately fulfilled the goals he had set out to accomplish. It hadn't been anywhere near perfect, but in the end, he had succeeded in what he had originally set out to do. After all that, there was no reason to whine about the difficulty of his goals now.

Determined, he made a fist. "I _will_ prevent Alternative V," Takeru growled fiercely to himself, subduing his inner doubts. "I _will _save my friends. And I _will _defeat the BETA and save humanity."

If he didn't believe it was possible, then he would fail before he even began. So even if he had to hypnotize himself, even if it was all just a naïve, egotistical delusion, he would believe in his goals and strive to fulfill them.

The only question was what did he need to do to not only succeed again, but do better?

In order to prevent Alternative V, Alternative IV needed to succeed. That meant that he had to help Yuuko complete the 00-Unit. To do that, she needed the equations that his world's Yuuko had thought up.

To get those equations, he had leapt across worlds and brought death in his wake. He couldn't do that again. Yet, despite Takeru's studies with her, he hadn't learned enough about his Yuuko's revised Quantum Causality Theory to give it to this world's Yuuko by himself. And this Yuuko would never figure out the revised theory on her own; this world, this culture just didn't have the stimulus that the other Yuuko had experienced.

_The stimulus…_

Takeru froze, his eyes widening in realization. He quickly yanked open the top left drawer of his desk and began rummaging around frantically. After a few moments of searching, he raised a plastic case into the air triumphantly. The cover displayed a hardboiled little humanoid robot on top a mountain of shadowy corpses clutching a chain gun in its hands and a knife between its teeth, set against a background of flames. Bold English letters declared the game's tacky title, the Burning Fighting Chronicles.

"I'm so glad I didn't throw this away," Takeru heaved a deep, heartfelt sigh of relief. The shitty game he held just might be able to help save the world.

Takeru's heady feelings of relief faded quickly, his mind once again turning back to consider the next step.

Even if the crappy game helped Yuuko come to the same conclusions her counterpart had reached, which was a big if, there was a major problem with the completion of the 00-Unit.

As soon as Sumika needed ODL purification, all the information she learned would be passed to the BETA via the reactor deep beneath Yokohama base. That meant that there was an extremely short time between showing the results of Alternative IV to the world, thus preventing Alternative V, and the BETA learning everything.

Any assault on Kashgar would need to happen within 3 days. Yet with such a short amount of time to prepare, Takeru couldn't see how the operation could end any better that the last time.

Somehow, they had to keep Sumika from passing information to the BETA. Or at least, delay it as much as possible to buy more time to prepare for a full scale assault on Kashgar.

Takeru grimaced. There was nothing he could think of to solve that particular issue. He would just have to hope something occurred to him along the way, or rely on Yuuko-sensei to figure something out.

If they could work out those issues, then maybe they could destroy the Original Hive without sacrificing all of his comrades.

The desk chair squeaked as Takeru stood, finally ready to get started. He methodically gathered some items that he thought might be useful, including the game case and his portable GameGuy console, and stuffed it in a duffle bag. Then Takeru slowly made his way downstairs, silently saying his goodbyes to his home and the ghosts living in it.

When Takeru made it to the entryway, he slipped on his shoes and paused with a hand on the front door. "I'm off," he announced, looking back into the house.

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and hardened his expression before opening the door.

With determined strides, Takeru began the trek towards the distant hill where everything would begin again.

#

Muv-Luv was the created by Age, not me. All the concepts and characters from the franchise are theirs. This is a non-profit work of fiction.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading the first chapter of Breaking the Tide.

This came about after I ended up playing through the Muv-Luv trilogy recently. I'd heard a lot of (mostly) good things about it before, while somehow managing to stay unspoiled about the plot (aside from the vague knowledge that there would be giant robots eventually), and finally got around to getting it. It was quite a journey. By the time I finished Alternative, I was in dire need of therapy. So that's when I started writing this, as a sort of catharsis. That's why it starts in traditional Muv-Luv fashion, with harem comedy. Because damn it, I wanted a happy end after all that suffering. And then also in traditional Muv-Luv fashion, after Takeru essentially attains the best end somehow, quantum wizardry comes along to ruin his day. Because it just wouldn't be Muv-Luv otherwise.

I alone proofread this chapter, so there may be (or rather, almost certainly will be) mistakes that I missed. If you see any, please point them out. Anyways, please tell me what you think. Any comments and/or criticism you have on grammar, spelling, or the story in general would be highly appreciated.


	2. Dead Man Walking

**Muv-Luv: Breaking the Tide**

**Chapter 2 / Dead Man Walking**

By HitokiriOTD

#

**October 22, 2001**

Walking through the ruined husk of his hometown was disconcerting no matter how many times Takeru saw it. He could look at wrecked building and clearly see the ghost of the unbroken structure that had once stood in its place. The sights and sounds of a living city were always at the forefront of his mind, contrasting with the bleak ruins his senses reported as he trudged through dead Hiiragi Town on his way towards the base.

There should have been whole buildings and smooth roads, not a barren wasteland of rubble and wind.

There should have been people going about their day.

There should have been a lot of things that weren't there.

Takeru couldn't have told someone how long he walked, lost in gloomy thoughts, but before he knew it he was ascending a familiar hill. Barren cherry blossom trees flanked each side of the worn road up the hill.

Beneath their bare branches, the spirits of the base's fallen soldiers slept.

At least, that was the legend Takeru had been taught. It was a good, comforting story, and one Takeru had taken to heart. He paused slightly at each little memorial he saw, ranging from scratches in tree bark to small little monuments of metal, wood, or stone. Silently, he paid his respects to the unknown soldiers they represented.

Somewhere out there, there was a hill just like this one, with sakura trees just like these, where his friends' spirits had come to rest after everything had ended.

But they would not rest here, not in this place and this time. Takeru would not come to pay his respects to his comrades here again, because he would make sure he wouldn't need to.

At the top of the hill, the sight that greeted him was the United Nations 11th Pacific Army's Yokohama Base. In front of him was the base's entryway, guarded by a checkpoint manned by two uniformed UN soldiers, armored for a firefight and armed with assault rifles. In the distance, the blue flag of the UN fluttered in the breeze next to the flag of Japan. The top of the converted school building was covered with radar dishes, antenna, and other bits of machinery. The faded, worn off-white walls of the big school buildings were just the small tip of the massive military base, which covered vast tracts of land on the surface and extended deep into the earth, filling up the former space excavated by the BETA when Yokohama had been made into a hive. There was even a massive military port several kilometers away on the coast that was technically a part of Yokohama Base, acting as the UN Navy's main port in the region.

Even though he had been expecting it, there was still a twinge of disappointment in his chest when he saw the military complex in place of his old school, Hakuryo.

Approaching footsteps shook Takeru out of his nostalgic study of the base.

"What are you doing here?" a Japanese UN soldier with the pencil mustache asked curiously, looking slightly surprised to see Takeru outside the gate. Takeru tried to recall his name, but couldn't remember.

His fellow guard, a tall, dark-skinned UN solider came up beside him. "Been taking a walk?" he asked jokingly in fluent Japanese. UN forces typically spoke English among each other, since it had become a sort of official common language due to the vital need for military coordination among different nationalities, but it was pretty normal for UN troops to learn the language of the country they were based in after a while. "You're a weird guy. It's nothing but rubble out there." Takeru started to feel a bit chagrined that he couldn't remember either of their names.

"Heading back to your squadron now?" The Asian solider, a corporal from what Takeru's vague memories suggested, held out an expectant hand, "Show us your ID and permit."

Bemused that the encounter was yet again playing out exactly as he remembered, Takeru wondered what he should do. Obviously, he had no ID or permit to show them. The Shirogane Takeru of this world was long dead, and had never been a part of the military anyway, while the Takeru standing at the base entrance was from another dimension entirely.

Should he make a ruckus and try to attract Yuuko-sensei's attention?

Or should he let himself get arrested again?

Or should he try to figure out some other way to handle the situation?

"Are you listening to us? We can't let you pass until you show us your ID and permit." Now the corporal was starting to sound impatient.

"Rules are rules," the other guard agreed. "We can't allow you to..." he trailed off, his eyes narrowing. "Hmm…"

"What is it?"

Takeru was running out of time to consider his options.

"…He has no insignia."

The Japanese guard stepped closer, his gaze intent. "You're right," he said quietly to his partner after a moment.

There was a heavy pause as they looked at Takeru, their expressions hardening.

"State your ID number and assigned squadron," the Japanese UN solider demanded.

"…That's classified," Takeru said finally, thinking quickly.

He didn't have time to waste getting arrested, but he didn't want to start a fight with two armed UN soldiers that were just doing their duty to protect the base either. He was on their side, even if they didn't know it. His only option was to try to speak to Yuuko as soon as possible, but hopefully he could accomplish that without causing an incident again.

So he was going to bluff. Hopefully he could at least get Yuuko's attention without starting a fight this time. If that failed, then he could cause a commotion, but he was at least going to try to avoid that.

For an instant, the two guards faltered. "What?" the corporal asked skeptically.

Shirogane tried to keep his expression calm and firm. No one had ever accused him of having a good poker face, but he would have to learn. "I'm on a special mission from UNPACOM HQ, here to see Professor Kouzuki Yuuko," Takeru stated assertively. "Please call her and let me speak to her."

"…What?" the pair recoiled slightly at the mention of Yuuko's name.

"You came to see Professor Kouzuki?" the tall one asked, his suspicion temporarily blunted by confusion. "For what reason? Show me your identification."

"That's classified," Takeru flatly refused to answer. "Now let me speak to her."

Both guards scowled, dissatisfied by his answer. But they were also uncertain about what to do with him, worried as they were by his mention of the feared XO's name and the implication that he was from the UN Pacific Command's headquarters. Finally, the short one grimaced and spoke, "…I'll ask her about it. Your name?"

"Shirogane Takeru."

"Are you sure about this?" the dark-skinned solider asked his comrade in a low voice.

"We were told to report anything involving the Professor to her directly," was the whispered reply. Despite his words, Takeru thought the soldier didn't look very sure at all.

"That's true, but…" the second solider trailed off with an unhappy grunt. He shook his head. "Anyway, stay right there and don't move until we've worked this out," he ordered Takeru.

There was one problem remaining. Yuuko didn't know who Takeru was. If they asked her, she would deny knowing him. He could talk his way out of that, but it'd be better to avoid it if he could.

The first solider turned to make the call. "Tell her I'm here to discuss the fifth alternative," Takeru said quickly.

Nothing bad had happened last time he had mentioned Alternative V around these two, and last time citing it was what had really drawn her attention. He knew she was already under significant pressure due to the lack of results for Alternative IV. If she didn't produce results, Alternative IV would officially be cancelled on December 25th, though Yuuko probably didn't know that yet, and Alternative V would be put into motion. His words would definitely pique her interest… at least, Takeru fervently hoped so.

Takeru waited in tense silence, ignoring the suspicious gaze of the remaining guard, and prayed that Yuuko-sensei would take the bait.

Two minutes later, the corporal emerged from the checkpoint booth and walked back toward Takeru. His expression was more bemused than anything else, which seemed like a good sign to Takeru. If she hadn't taken the bait, the solider would be glaring suspiciously at him again.

"Shirogane Takeru," the corporal spoke. "Come with me. Professor Kouzuki has agreed to speak to you."

_Yes! _Takeru mentally cheered, relieved. But his thoughts quickly sobered. Next would come the real challenge.

Getting Yuuko-sensei to believe his story would not be easy. Winning her trust and getting her to help him would be even harder. Takeru done it before, and he could do it again, but he had learned that verbal battles with his former physics teacher were never to be taken lightly.

#

After being fingerprinted, thrust through a metal detector, and strip searched, Shirogane was blindfolded and escorted to vice commander's office. It wasn't at all normal for Yuuko to meet guests in her office, but she likely couldn't talk about the Alternative plans securely anywhere else in the base… or so Takeru theorized. Whatever the reason, he was just glad she was giving him the opportunity to have a private conversation with her.

When his escorts removed his blindfold and shoved him through her office door, Takeru found Yuuko waiting for him there, standing next to her wooden desk with her left hand casually resting behind unbalanced looking stack of files. Takeru had no doubt her gun was there.

Takeru couldn't help but pause and study her. Kouzuki Yuuko was a stunning sight in every world. The military dress uniform and lab coat she wore couldn't conceal her beautiful features and amazing figure. But what really struck him were her violet eyes, watching him with an impossibly sharp and calculating gaze. The Yuuko from his home world could be scary sometimes, but her gaze could never become so cutting and cold.

This Yuuko would kill him without hesitation if she decided she should.

Without bidding, he walked forward and sank down on the stool on the left side of her spacious, messy office. The worn leather let out a puffing sigh as he sat, a sigh which was mirrored by Takeru.

"Well?" Yuuko began. "Like you asked, here's your chance to speak to me." Despite her nonchalant tone, her eyes watched him warily, as if he were a dog that she suspected might be rabid. "Who are you? What do you want?"

Takeru took a deep, calming breath and returned her gaze evenly. "My name is Shirogane Takeru," he replied. "And what I want is to defeat the BETA and save humanity."

Yuuko's eyes narrowed at Takeru's declaration. "Are you joking?" she asked, a touch of irritation bleeding into her voice.

"No," Takeru denied unblinkingly. "Please listen to my story, Yuuko-sensei. If you still don't believe what I say after you listen to the whole thing and ask me all the questions you want, then go ahead and shoot me with that gun." He nodded to her left hand, still resting on the desk concealed behind a stack of files. All he could do was pray that Kasumi would verify his story to Yuuko, or at least confirm that he believed in the words he was saying.

Yuuko's arm twitched slightly in response, and she looked briefly chagrined that she had reacted to his words. "Fine," she nodded, bringing the weapon into view. "First, let's talk about how you know about the Alternative plans."

"The first time I heard about them was on December 24th, from this base's CO," Takeru answered.

"December 24th?" Yuuko interrupted, frowning. "Which December 24th?"

"This year's December… two months from now."

She gave him a disbelieving look.

"I know it sounds crazy, but…" Takeru ran his hand through his hair in frustration, wondering how to explain it all over again. He knew now his strange displacement wasn't really just time travel, but instead more like moving between parallel worlds. "…the Everett interpretation," he said aloud.

"…What?"

"You were the one who first explained it to me. The many-worlds interpretation first proposed by Hugh Everett in the 50s…" Takeru paused, leaning forward towards Yuuko intently, trying to will her to see his sincerity. "I've been through this before… or at least, I've been through worlds exactly like this one before. So I already know what will happen in the near future of this world."

"Hmm…" she made a noncommittal noise. "So? What will happen?" she asked dubiously, playing along.

"On December 24th, if something isn't done, Alternative IV will be cancelled." Yuuko's expression tightened at his statement. From what he'd remembered, she'd originally not been informed about the deadline until after the higher ups had already made the decision to scrap Alternative IV. But even coming from an unproven source like him, it couldn't have been a pleasant thing for her to hear. "It hasn't produced any results, so it will be scrapped in favor of Alternative V. And then, a few years later, 100,000 people will head off into space and leave the remaining billion behind to wreck the planet with G-Bombs and die a slow death against the BETA." Takeru's hands tightened into fists and his teeth ground together. "It will be the end of humanity."

It could be, and had been, argued that Alternative V was the best chance for humanity to avoid extinction in their long, hopeless war against the BETA. Alternative IV was doomed to failure, and would take a miracle to show results. Betting the ultimate survival of mankind on a failed pipe dream was foolish.

But Takeru had seen the aftermath of Alternative V. He could never, ever agree that Alternative V was the right choice. Alternative IV would succeed. If it needed a miracle, he would create one. He had done it before and could do it again.

"That's—"

"That's what will happen if Alternative IV doesn't show results in the next two months," Takeru interrupted her, getting his emotions under control. "But, if you can get the 00 Unit working, we can stop Alternative V."

In an instant, Yuuko leveled her pistol at him, her expression tight and almost angry. Mentioning the top secret 00 Unit had clearly shaken her. "Who are you really? Why are you here?" she demanded again harshly. "What is your objective?"

"To prevent Alternative V," he repeated, keeping his eyes fixed on hers as he did his best to sound calm and unruffled by the gun pointing at him, "and to defeat the BETA."

When she didn't respond to his statement with anything but a vicious glare, Takeru continued, "I'm not an anti-Alternative agent. I'm just a solider…" He paused, shaking his head and taking a ragged breath, "…just a man who doesn't want to see the Earth abandoned to the BETA and watch all his friends die around him again." He stood slowly, careful not to startle the woman who had a gun trained on him. "But, to keep that from happening again, I need your help, Yuuko-sensei."

She considered him in silence, her face relaxing slightly back into an expressionless mask as her finger rested motionlessly on the trigger. "…Sensei?" Yuuko asked finally, changing the topic. "I don't remember having any students."

"Yeah," Takeru nodded. "Back in my original world, I used to be just an ordinary Japanese high school student in a world without BETA."

"A world… without the BETA?" Yuuko echoed slowly, incredulous.

"You were my high school physics teacher," Takeru continued. "Marimo-chan was my homeroom teacher. The girls from the 207th were my friends." He paused, wondering how much he should elaborate on the relationship he'd shared with them.

It was… kind of complicated.

"Anyway," Takeru cleared his throat. "One day, I ended up here. Or at least, a world like here. A world that was under siege by the BETA. Even there, you ended up helping me out in a lot of ways and teaching me a lot of things."

Her lessons had been incredibly painful, not to mention occasionally reprehensible, and more than once he had seriously considered killing her. But, in the end, she had done everything for the sake of humanity's survival. And, deep in her heart, she really had cared about him in some strange way. The world needed Yuuko, and so did he.

Takeru smiled faintly at her, "…so to me, you're Yuuko-sensei."

And just like Yuuko-sensei, her expression was not in the least bit touched by his heartfelt words. She just looked at him with those disconcertingly sharp violet eyes. "How do you expect me to believe what you're saying?" Yuuko asked finally.

"'You may not understand the truth, but that won't change it.'" Last time, that quote had struck something in her.

Yuuko's mouth opened slightly in surprise, "…eh?"

"Those are your words. When I first came here and couldn't accept this reality, that's what you told me."

Her eyes closed for a moment in contemplation. It seemed at least she believed he wasn't going to harm her if she was willing to take her eyes off him even for a second, which was an encouraging sign. "Good idea… wait a bit," she said after a brief pause. Yuuko moved behind her desk and began typing on her computer.

Takeru breathed a soft sigh of relief. Somehow, those words were what triggered her to ask Kasumi for her readings on him. Hopefully after that she would at least believe he was sincere.

After a few minutes, eyes never leaving the computer screen, Yuuko flicked the safety on the gun and set it down on the table.

"Do you believe me now, sensei?" Takeru asked. "It's not an impossible idea, right?"

"Well…" she looked up at him. "For now… let's say you're right. It's not impossible." There was a faint gleam of excitement in her expression as the scientist within her no doubt clamored to start unraveling the mystery he had presented her.

"Interested?" he asked, smiling.

"A bit."

"Then… for now, can I assume that trust me enough to keep me around?"

After a moment, she nodded. "For now," she replied, repeating his words back at him.

A knot of tension Takeru hadn't even realized was there drained from his back. "Phew," he sighed loudly, prompting a tiny smile from Yuuko-sensei. "Now we can really get started."

Yuuko sat down in her plush brown leather chair with a squeak. "So to summarize…" she started. "For some reason, you traveled here from a parallel world. Moreover, you've traveled back in time, and are experiencing everything once again. Does that sound right?"

It wasn't exactly right, at least from what Takeru understood, which was admittedly not much. Still, it was close enough for the purposes of the conversation.

"Yeah."

"Then let me ask something about what I did last time."

"What is it?"

"Why did I tell you about the 00 Unit?" she asked, bringing a thoughtful finger to her chin and resting her other hand on her hip in what Takeru privately recognized as her thinking pose.

"Originally, you didn't," Takeru said honestly, which earned him a sharp look. "The first time, all I knew was you were working on parallel computing for Alternative IV, and while I'd seen the brain in the other room, I didn't know what it really was."

Yuuko's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "…Originally? The first time? How many times has this happened then?"

"It's my third time experiencing this. Or at least… the third that I can clearly remember."

In truth, the number was almost certainly a lot higher than merely three. But his memories weren't entirely clear on that subject.

"I see. So, how did you hear about the 00 Unit?"

"The first time I came, I was just a kid who didn't know anything. So in the end, I didn't really know much about what you were doing except for bits and pieces. The second time, after remembering Alternative V… I got a lot more involved. I learned about what Alternative IV really was. I learned about the 00 Unit and the purpose she was made for, and about who that brain really belongs to."

"_Takeru-chan!" _Sumika's voice echoed in his mind.

Takeru took a breath, steadying his emotions. "Kagami Sumika," he stated. "My childhood friend, both in my original world and in this one… her brain and spinal cord are in that container in the other room, kept alive somehow by the BETA's technology."

Yuuko said nothing, her expression carefully blank as she listened.

"That's the base for the 00 Unit… at least, the primary one." That all the members of Yuuko's special unit were potential candidates to become the 00 Unit was a fact that still made him grit his teeth.

"I told you all of this?" the professor responsible for Alternative IV asked neutrally.

"Yes, because I was the one who helped you complete the 00 Unit."

"How?!" Yuuko demanded, practically lunging out of her chair towards him as her calm façade cracked like an egg shattering against the ground.

"Because… in my world, the original one, you came up with a revision to the theory behind the parallel computing devices you're trying to complete. It was a revision that enabled you to finally connect the missing pieces and finish the 00 Unit."

"A revision?!" The scientist's eyes were wide. "And you know it?" she questioned fervently, marching back out around her desk towards him.

"Not… exactly," Takeru shook his head. "I know a bit about it, but not enough to really help you."

"Then—!"

"But the other Yuuko-sensei knew," he interrupted her. "And I… I'm a causality conductor."

"A causality conductor," Yuuko muttered to herself, her mind turning over the implications of the phrase.

"You helped send me back to get the information from her. That's how I helped you complete the 00 Unit."

"I see…" Yuuko said quietly, visibly gaining control of her emotions. Already, she had grasped the basics of what had happened. He could see the plans already taking shape in her head. Takeru sometimes couldn't help but be in awe of her lightning fast mind.

"But this time, I don't think that's necessary," Takeru broke her contemplation.

"And your basis for that is…?"

"In my bag, I have a disk. It's a game you played in my world. When you played that, it gave you the idea that led you to revising your theory."

Yuuko's head tilted slightly in puzzlement, "A… game…?"

In a world where humanity been fighting desperately for survival since the 1970s, there were no computer games or consoles. The computing power his world had often used for entertainment was solely reserved for military or scientific use here. To her, games were things like board games, marbles, or cat's cradle. Video games were a foreign concept to Yuuko.

"I'll show you later," Takeru said, understanding her confusion. "But I think that if you experience the same thing the other Yuuko did, you should be able to reach the same conclusion. At the very least, it's worth a try before spending all the time and resources on trying to send me back across worlds to pick up some notes."

It had to work. He did not want to drag catastrophe into an innocent world again.

"…I see. We'll discuss that later then," Yuuko said. The fact that she was willing to let that go at all clearly meant she didn't trust him enough yet, but that was fine. It wasn't time to deal with that anyway. "And after that?" she leaned forward eagerly. "We completed the 00 Unit?" Even if she didn't believe his tale yet, she sure was getting quite engrossed in his story.

"Yeah. She was a mess for a while. After what happened to her…" his throat tightened. _Sumika._ Takeru cleared his throat before continuing. "Well, it took some time, but eventually we were able to restore her sanity." From what he remembered, that had been a side-effect of memories from the other world coming to her more than anything he had actively done. Would Sumika be able to recover her sanity without the memories of the other Sumika to help? What was he going to do about that? "Then we used the 00 Unit as part of an operation to destroy the Sadogashima Hive."

"Hmm…" Yuuko made a thoughtful noise.

"It was a success. The hive was destroyed and Sumika was able to get information about the BETA, including the layout of each hive."

The data Sumika had gained was utterly invaluable. With that information, humanity actually had a chance to take a BETA hive conventionally, without requiring G Bombs or some other super weapon. It was then that they proved that Alternative IV truly did have the potential to change the tides of the war against the BETA.

But… in the process, Captain Isumi and Kashiwagi had died.

And it was all because Sumika had picked up on one of his dirty thoughts and been shocked to the point where her delicate sanity teetered on the balance.

It was his fault.

_Stop, _Takeru grimly forced his guilty thoughts away. There was no point re-treading old ground, not when he had the chance to change their fate. It was hard with the memories so freshly revived, like it had happened yesterday, but he had gotten over it before. He could only honor their memory and move forward.

"That was when we proved that Alternative IV really could work," Takeru continued.

Even though Yuuko may not have been convinced about his story, she couldn't help but smile hearing about the supposed success of Alternative IV.

"But… that's also when the problems started."

Yuuko's smile faltered. "Problems?"

"Sumika couldn't handle the stress of firing the XG-70b's particle cannon twice. She fell unconscious. We recovered her, but we ended up losing the Susanoo. The self-destruct destroyed the Sadogashima Hive, but..."

"Sounds like a good result to me," Yuuko commented when he trailed off.

Takeru bit his lip. "It wasn't," he denied emphatically. "The wave from the blast ended up damaging the Secondary Defense Line to the point where we couldn't detect the 40,000 strong remnants of the Sadogashima Hive heading straight here, to Yokohama Base."

The base's vice commander went still.

"They came here to recharge, since this was the closest active BETA Reactor."

She opened her mouth, but Takeru cut her off. "It was a slaughter," he said bleakly. "We were caught by surprise and massively outnumbered, but worse, the BETA started using actual battle tactics. We were able to drive them off, but the base and all the nearby forces were pretty much gutted. The UN 11th Army and the Imperial Army were basically crippled."

"The BETA… used tactics?" Yuuko's lips were pressed into a grim line.

It was the nightmare of every soldier in the world. The BETA were a terrifying, implacable enemy that had been slowly overrunning mankind for over three decades with the weight of their numbers alone. If the BETA actually started using military tactics… it would spell the absolute end for humanity's hope of survival.

"Yeah. They held their Laser-class in reserve, used their own corpses to restrict our maneuvers in close combat and mask their own movements, and even were able to precisely defuse the S-11 we were going to use to blow the Reactor after they reached it."

"That's…"

"Impossible?" Takeru shook his head. "The thing is… the Reactor isn't just an energy source. It's a communication line to and from the BETA's main hive. When you had to hook up Sumika to it for ODL purification after she was strained by the Sadogashima operation, the BETA learned from her just like she learned from them. They learned all about Alternative IV, the XG-70, and the 00 Unit's purpose."

"And then?" Yuuko asked quietly.

"Then… given the past rate that BETA assimilated information and deployed countermeasures, we had 3 days to assault the Original Hive and put an end to things. It didn't work out so well. There wasn't enough time. In the end… everyone died."

"And then you came back here."

Takeru nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Nothing he'd said was a lie, but it wasn't quite the whole truth either. "It needs to go better this time," he whispered finally, staring at his lap.

"If you can give me some proof that I can trust what you say… then it will. If you can do that, I'll make good use of your information."

"Sensei…" Takeru felt a rush of hope. Even though he couldn't quite trust her to achieve the result he wanted—her ideas of making good use of his information were a lot different than Takeru's ideas—she was still his greatest and most powerful ally in his fight to change the course of history. Securing her trust and her aid was the first step towards altering fate. "…Thank you, Yuuko-sensei."

"Don't thank me yet," she wagged a finger. "You haven't proven anything yet. All I can trust about you right now is that you believe what you are saying. That doesn't mean it's true."

"I'll prove it," he said before grinning at her. "You'll believe me soon enough."

"At least you're confident," Yuuko laughed softly. "And how are you planning on proving this to me?"

"There are some major events that will happen soon, things that I couldn't possibly know in advance any other way. Before one happens, I'll tell you about it. If it occurs like I say it does, then you'll have your proof."

Takeru wanted to lay all his cards out on the table so they could make the most of the time to prepare for upcoming events, but rationally he knew it was just too soon. He needed to think through the implications of things more before he told Yuuko-sensei about what would happen in detail. At first, he couldn't change things too much. Like he'd learned from her before, he had to make choices carefully to ensure that the future he was trying to shape didn't run away from him in some unexpected direction.

In any case, no matter what he said or did, Yuuko wouldn't move until he gave her solid evidence that his story was true. The only thing Takeru knew that could prove that was predicting the actions of the BETA. That was something no human being could reliably do… unless they happened to know the future.

"I see. That sounds reasonable," she nodded approvingly.

It was originally her idea, after all.

"So I guess I need to keep you around until this happens?"

"Yes, please."

Yuuko drummed her fingers on her desk, looking thoughtful. "I guess I can always use another gopher," she murmured. "But I can't exactly just let an unknown civilian hang around the base, unless I keep you in a jail cell."

"Haa…" Takeru sighed at the devilish look she was giving him. Could he never escape becoming Yuuko's errand boy? "Please don't throw me in jail," he requested tiredly. "I was a solider, you know. I can help you a lot more in a TSF than I can just running errands around the base." At the very least, he needed to avoid the fate of becoming her coffee delivery boy.

"Hmm..." she made a skeptical noise. "Even if I assume you aren't delusional or a spy, I already have plenty of pilots I can use."

"Your Special Task Force is down from an entire wing to a single squadron," Takeru replied simply. "And you don't have any pilots like me."

"That's quite the claim," she said quietly, her eyes narrowed at his mention of the Special Task Force.

"Put me in a simulator and I'll prove it to you."

Takeru couldn't prove to her that his story about the future was true just yet. But he could prove that his skills with a TSF were the real deal.

"Oh? Sometimes you say good things too," Yuuko murmured, standing up. "I'll hold you to that, then."

She picked up the receiver on her desk phone and dialed a number. "Ah, it's me," she said causally into the phone after a few seconds, as whoever she was calling picked up. "Is there anyone using the TSF simulators right now? No? Good. Keep it that way." Hanging up, she grabbed her lab coat and began to walk towards the door. "Come on, Shirogane," she said as she passed him. "It's time to show me what you can do."

"Thank you, Yuuko-sensei!" Takeru beamed, hurrying after her.

He was off to a good start. Yuuko didn't believe him just yet, but she hadn't thrown him in jail or had him killed either, and she was giving him a chance to prove his skills. It was kind of different than he remembered, but at least it was a good kind of different.

#

Putting on a fortified suit again was nostalgic. The Type-99 fortified suit Yuuko had procured for him was again the black and purple colors of a regular UN TSF pilot, rather than the typical light colored trainee versions. Once again, he marveled that such a comparatively light suit could protect the body so well against damage. It also was able to monitor his vitals, protect him from extreme temperatures, help him interface with a TSF, act as an anti-g suit to help him stay conscious in the high g environment of a TSF cockpit, and more. He still remembered how amazed he'd been that such a light suit was capable of so much.

Slipping into the cockpit of a TSF, or at least the simulator's replica of the real thing, was even more nostalgic. It was like some unknown tension in the back of his mind was being soothed.

In this world, he couldn't do anything without power.

Kouzuki Yuuko's power may have had the greatest ability to influence the world, but in the end, it was her power, not his. Maybe he could make use of her when their interests aligned, but trying to make use of Yuuko was like trying to ride a tiger. He had no choice but to do it anyway, even if it almost certainly wouldn't end well for him. But he also needed to increase his own influence. And to gain his own power, Takeru needed rank and a weapon.

Tactical Surface Fighters were Takeru's sword and shield in the crazy world he now inhabited.

In one, he could fight. In one, he could protect his friends. As far as Takeru was concerned, the faster he could become a TSF pilot again, the better.

"Shirogane, are you done spacing out? I don't have all day, you know?"

"Yeah," Takeru replied to Yuuko's caustic voice over the coms. "Sorry. I'm ready."

"Then I'm starting the simulator," she announced without fanfare.

The lights in the simulator's cockpit abruptly came alive, along with a rumble as the chassis shook slightly when it rose into an active position.

"Considering how much you were bragging before, I assume we can skip the aptitude test and basic courses?" Yuuko asked.

"Yeah."

"We'll start with Combat Training Course D then."

The Tactical Surface Fighter simulators had a bunch of different training courses, from basic lessons on TSF operation, to movement, to combat training courses meant to hone skills in all the various types of TSF combat, all the way to hive infiltration courses.

Combat Training Course D would pit him against a squadron of Type-97 Fubuki TSFs. It was a course that forced cadets to put all their TSF combat training to good use in order to overcome the enemy squadron. That being said, it was a course for training cadets, so the enemy tactics were somewhat limited so as not to overwhelm trainees entirely. Even though it was normally a course for at least an element—a pair—of pilots, if not a full squad, it would only just serve as a warm up for Takeru if his memories didn't lie.

The simulator's displays flickered to life. His suit's head mounted display began to beam data to his eyes, displaying his simulated Fubuki's current status.

His UN blue virtual Fubuki stood in a pristine urban environment, with tall, undamaged buildings and smooth roads. In some simulations, he could even look down and see people going about their routine, though in this particular one the streets were eerily empty. The simulator's visuals were incredibly realistic, to the point where Takeru's eyes couldn't tell it was all just a digital scene.

"All right, Shirogane," Yuuko's voice filled the cockpit. "Starting simulation."

"Roger," Takeru acknowledged. He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, preparing his mind for battle.

He wasn't worried about being able to complete the course, but he couldn't let himself be complacent. From his subjective sense of time it'd been something like two years since he'd piloted a TSF, yet he had to impress Yuuko and show her that his skills could be valuable to her. There was absolutely no room for mistakes.

"Start!"

Abruptly, his unit's radar registered enemies.

Takeru's Fubuki thrust forward immediately, jump units roaring as it launched down the broad avenue like a rocket. An enemy TSF darted out from behind a building and leveled its Type-87 Assault Cannon at him. Not bothering to slow down, Takeru fired his own assault cannon, letting loose several tight bursts of 36mm rounds to precisely shoot down the enemy unit. The Fubuki, being a lightly armored training unit, was easily disabled by 36mm cannon fire if you knew where to shoot and were able to actually hit it, which Takeru did and could.

Alarms howled as another Fubuki peeked out from behind a building at the next intersection a block away and acquired a lock. Takeru launched into a quick boost jump, evading the 120mm cannon round it fired. He came down and fired a suppressing burst—or at least tried to. Takeru grunted in irritation as his unit failed to respond to his input, stuck in its balancing mode due to his landing. In truth, the auto balancer only took control of the unit for a brief moment, but to Takeru, who was already reflexively trying to input a flurry of commands, it felt like an eternity. When it finally returned control to him, Takeru promptly engaged his jump units again.

Takeru's Fubuki twisted in mid-air, slammed feet first into the concrete walls of an office building on the right side of the street, then leapt off towards the enemy unit while deploying his unit's close combat dagger. Using the sides of buildings as platforms to quickly change his jump vector was risky and frankly unnecessary in his current situation, but he wanted to put on a show for Yuuko. His TSF crossed the distance between itself and the enemy in the blink of an eye and Takeru drove the knife through his foe's cockpit, bowling the unit over on its back with his unit's momentum in the process.

With a jerk, Takeru yanked his weapon from the enemy unit and let out of a breath as he checked his radar. There were six more enemy units in the combat area moving in elements of two. Four of them were closing slowly from the north, grouped several blocks apart. Another two seemed to be swinging wide around the east, presumably to flank him. None of them were visible yet, but in the dense urban environment that was to be expected.

That dense urban environment was Takeru's greatest advantage. After all, he had been the most skilled Storm Vanguard of the elite Valkyries for a brief time… or maybe a really long time. Sometimes his memories made it hard to tell. In any case, close range combat in a TSF was his specialty, and the buildings meant that the enemies would have to get close to shoot unless they chose to take to the sky. But they wouldn't do that, not in this simulation anyway. Many of the training courses simulated potential laser threats, including the one he was in, so aerial combat was not really an option for him or the AI. Even boost jumps that cleared the higher buildings for more than a handful seconds was just asking to get killed by a laser beam from out of the blue horizon.

Rather than waiting for the enemy to come to him, Takeru began maneuvering towards the flanking element to his right. When he was less than a block away, he boosted narrowly over a row of multi-story buildings, his unit's feet barely avoiding a scraping, and dropped down just before hitting the laser lock threshold right over the heads of the two flanking Fubuki. As soon as he cleared the edge of the buildings, he fired a high explosive 120mm round, splashing the rear Fubuki in an instant before hammering the other with a barrage from his chain gun. Fired directly from above, rather than at the TSF's heavier frontal armor, the 36mm rounds were even more effective than normal.

"Four down," Takeru grinned savagely after he landed between the smoking wrecks of his two most recent kills. Jump jets ignited again with a howl as he sped north down the street, seeking to close with his remaining foes.

Just as he was hunting them, they were also hunting him. Takeru's TSF blared a warning. He evaded instinctively, darting abruptly right at an intersection to avoid a hail of gunfire from a pair of enemies. Now heading east, Takeru evaded more fire from another unit that suddenly dropped down in front of him. He pushed his Fubuki to full throttle and dodged another burst while he took careful aim and gunned down the TSF in front of him. Without slowing, he flew around the slumping unit and turned left, putting another corner between him and the units pursuing him.

If his opponent was coming at him from behind, in this environment…

Takeru forced his unit into a boost jump, flying low off the ground towards the upcoming three-way intersection less than a block away, keeping one eye on the radar contacts around him with the other judged the distance towards the building at the end of the street. Instinctively judging the timing, he drove towards the buildings on his left, twisting his TSF and kicking off of it towards the three-way intersection. Rotating his TSF around, he drove his jump units to maximum throttle and slammed feet first into the building at the end of the street, then launched his unit forward a blink later. In another moment, he hit the third building in his jump just as his pursuers rounded the corner.

The lead unit around the bend was met with the edge of Takeru's Type-74 PB Blade as he cleaved it in half with a horizontal slice while rushing past it. Before the following unit could react, Takeru executed a tight turn and thrust the massive sword's tip through the control unit.

It wasn't often that a situation warranted using the Albright Turn Hayase had taught him, especially considering the highly specific terrain it required and the fact that it was pretty much pointless against the BETA. Still, Takeru was quite pleased at his execution of the difficult, obscure maneuver, knowing it would at least help him impress his observer.

"Seven down," Takeru muttered to himself, scanning intently for his last remaining foe.

Abruptly, as if it had teleported, a huge, disquieting shadow appeared to Takeru's left. It was not a TSF, but it was lunging towards him quickly.

The training simulators sometimes randomly displayed silhouettes of the BETA on the battlefield to help instructors judge how cadets would react. In the beginning, just the shadow alone had given Takeru a mental breakdown. For a boy who had grown up in peace to be suddenly confronted with one of the beings that had slaughtered billions of humans… he hadn't been able to handle it at first. Eventually, he'd overcome that trauma somewhat. Then, when he had met the BETA in the flesh, he'd lost his mind in fear and rage.

Marimo had died because of that.

Because she had wanted to cheer him up after his pathetic, crazy actions.

But… in the end…

He had overcome his fear of the BETA long ago.

They were his enemy, but they did not terrify him anymore.

All he felt at the sight of them now was burning rage.

Without hesitation, Takeru's Fubuki shifted to meet the grotesque giant, launching towards it and bringing the long blade around in a blindingly swift overhand slash.

"Combat Training Course D complete," Yuuko's voice announced.

#

Yuuko stared at the monitors of the simulator control room, listening absently to the loud mechanical hum of the simulator as it began to return to its docked position while her mind whirled at the results in front of her.

She was, for one of the very few times in her life, at a loss.

Who was Shirogane Takeru?

Yuuko had no idea, and she didn't like that at all.

Shirogane was a dead man. At least, that's what all the records she had found on him insisted. But he had walked into her office anyway, which dead men didn't typically do, and his fingerprints had been a perfect match for the Japanese government records she had accessed. It was a very curious, very suspicious set of circumstances. Then, after he had appeared before her abruptly, he had started spouting off an unsettling mix of fantastical delusions and highly classified information.

There had been several times during their conversation where she had very nearly shot him. Shirogane knew things he shouldn't have known about too many secrets, chief among them the intimate details of the Alternative plans.

But, for some reason, she hadn't.

Yuuko still wasn't entirely sure why. It annoyed her.

Kasumi had verified that, at the very least, Shirogane believed his own delusions. That didn't really mean much, considering how easily manipulated human brains were. But, when she combined Kasumi's readings with his knowledge of things no outsider should know, she couldn't help but be a little intrigued. A part of her couldn't help but ask if it was really possible.

And now…

Shirogane had said he was a good pilot. Yuuko had been pretty certain it was another of his fantastical claims. And even if he did turn out to actually know how to use a TSF, and thus putting more weight on the spy side of Yuuko's mental scales, her Special Task Force pilots were some of the best.

The results in front of her said that he had cleared the training course several times faster than the previous record. He had completed it alone, while the previous record had been set by a pair of veteran pilots training while their TSFs were being repaired, and he had done it flawlessly, not taking a single hit.

If the simulator results weren't a fluke, and the records of previous results were up to date, then Shirogane wasn't just a good TSF pilot. He was a world-class ace.

How could someone the world thought was dead become so skilled at piloting a Tactical Surface Fighter? It wasn't like any random kid could stumble across one and hop in. They were highly expensive, complicated war machines that required significant training to even get them to safely move, much less fight. And then there were the readings from his fortified suit. Even though he was wearing a brand new suit and entering a simulator that had no data on him, he had endured the violent simulated movements of the TSF far better than any other pilot recorded in the UN Army's databases. If the suit's sensors weren't broken, Shirogane had been practically unaffected by the intense movements even without accumulated feedback corrections, a first among the records she had in front of her.

The results had significantly surpassed her expectations. It seemed he hadn't been emptily boasting when he said she didn't have any TSF pilots like him. After seeing him in action, the thought of the things she could do with someone of his skill…

Now she wanted him, delusional or not.

But the problems remained. Shirogane was clearly dangerous, and the things he knew were even more so. Kasumi had thought he was trustworthy from her readings, but even espers could be fooled. Yuuko would have to keep a very close eye on Shirogane if she decided to keep him around, and given how perilous that course potentially was...

It sounded like a pain in the ass. Really, she should just kill him.

…And yet…

She just couldn't stop thinking how useful he could be. Her Special Task Force tended to drop like flies, which was pretty much expected given the highly difficult missions they were sent on, but with a pilot like him… Besides, Kasumi had thought he was telling the truth. Even if Kasumi had somehow been fooled, a single man would be easy for Yuuko to get rid of, especially on her home ground.

And, perhaps most relevant of all, the part of her that was a scientist before anything else wanted to unravel the mystery he had presented her.

_What if…?_

It wasn't totally impossible. The Quantum Causality Theory Yuuko had developed when she was 17 could possibly explain his far-fetched story. The fact that her theory might actually be proven… sometimes her own genius gave her delicious chills.

And if… just if it could be true… the things he had said about the parallel computing theory…

Maybe she would keep him around for a bit.

First, though, just to make sure his simulator results weren't some kind of fluke…

Yuuko toggled the microphone that let the simulator operators communicate with the pilots. "Combat Training Course G is starting," she informed Shirogane abruptly, hitting several keys on the console in front of her to start the simulation and raising the difficulty a few notches in the process. "Have fun." As the simulator made a mechanical groan and lifted back into a starting position, Yuuko leaned back and waited eagerly to see what kind of results the strange boy would show her next.

#

As the final training course ended, it took a minute for the simulator to settle back down to its resting state. The hatch opened with a hiss and Takeru climbed out onto the catwalk. He stretched, enjoying the cool air outside of the stuffy simulator for a moment before walking up to the control room where Yuuko had been overseeing his performance.

"Well?" Takeru asked as he entered the control room that overlooked the simulator area. Yuuko sat alone in the operator's chair, engrossed in reading his simulator results from the monitor in front of her. He wasn't entirely sure how she had managed to run the complicated simulator by herself, but then Yuuko-sensei was capable of a lot of surprising things. "How'd I do?"

"That was… impressive," Yuuko admitted grudgingly. "I think you may have set a new record."

Takeru was pretty sure he'd actually just smashed the records for the courses he had run by a good margin. But saying that would probably just be a good way to make Yuuko annoyed.

"The readings from your suit were interesting as well. You handled the shaking better than any cadet we have on record. Not to mention your mental state was surprisingly calm throughout the whole battle." Yuuko swiveled her chair around to give him an appraising look, "So you really have piloted a TSF in combat before."

"Yeah."

"It was interesting to see you in action…" Yuuko conceded. "I suppose you might be handy to keep around after all."

"Yes!" Takeru couldn't help but pump an arm in victory.

"Come on," Yuuko said, rolling her eyes at his celebratory gesture and standing. "Let's head back to my office. We'll finish our conversation there."

Following her obediently, Takeru wondered why they needed to make the long trek back to her office. Maybe she still wanted more readings from Kasumi on him.

When they got back to her office after a long, silent walk, Yuuko headed straight to her desk and sank down in her chair. Quickly, she typed several long sequences into her computer, and then looked at Takeru with a small frown. "You know… if I didn't have a good reason to believe otherwise, the theory that you're some kind of spy would look a lot more likely, given your skills."

"But you do believe otherwise," Takeru said cheerfully. It looked like once again Kasumi had come through for him again.

"Haa…" she sighed almost tiredly.

"Right…? Sensei?" his grin faded.

"…For now," she acknowledged after a pause that sent Takeru's pulse skyrocketing in nervousness.

"I won't let you down," Takeru promised earnestly, relieved.

"You'd better not," Yuuko said simply.

Sometimes, Yuuko-sensei scared the crap out of Takeru. Even though she hadn't made any specific threats, or even really glared, those three words sent a chill down his spine. The 'or else' implied in them was as ominous as a guillotine hanging over his neck.

"Yes, ma'am," Takeru nodded.

"Good!" Yuuko smiled abruptly. "Then welcome to Yokohama Base, Second Lieutenant Shirogane Takeru."

"Eh?" Takeru's mouth opened in surprise. "Second Lieutenant…? You're not putting me in the Eishi Training School?"

"Why would I do that?" Yuuko looked faintly bemused at his question. "After the show you just put on, you want me to waste your talents by putting you in school to learn things you already know?" She frowned at him, "You'd be useless to me that way."

"But… that's what you did last time," Takeru said slowly, his mind racing at the unexpected development. "You put me in the Eishi Training School with Cadet Squadron 207."

Takeru hadn't actually considered anything else was an option. Could she really insert him directly as a commissioned officer somehow? He supposed, with Yuuko's power and influence, making him a lowly second lieutenant wasn't impossible for her. But in the first place, he remembered from last time that she didn't trust him enough at this point to put him anywhere else except the training school. Had he really changed that already? Also, if he ended up somewhere else, he would be invalidating his foreknowledge before things even started. And then, aside from all that…

"That's where you put me before," Takeru said again quietly. "It's… where my friends are."

"I see…" Yuuko looked thoughtful again. "That's might be pretty good idea for keeping an eye on you, actually." She paused and eyed him, then shook her head. "But again, you'd be useless to me. I have something else in mind for you," she continued. "And besides, didn't you say you were a solider? That you could help me more in a TSF than running around the base? Are you taking those words back already?"

"I…" Takeru trailed off uncertainly. "Can you even do that? I mean, making some strange guy a cadet is one thing, but an officer…?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" Yuuko raised her eyebrows. "I can something like a mere second lieutenant appear or disappear as I please."

It sounded like she was just boasting, but… It was true that Yuuko could move armies when she wanted to. And second lieutenants were the lowest of the low, at least in terms of officer ranks in the UN Army. It wasn't like he would gain that much authority or access to special information, especially compared to what he'd shown her he already knew. So maybe she wasn't risking much. But even so…

Takeru bit his lip. Why was he so against the idea? Wasn't this a good thing? He needed rank and authority, and Yuuko was unexpectedly offering a huge head start on those. Yet at the same time, he was uneasy. If he became an officer so early, what would happen? Takeru had no idea. Would it really be helpful, or would he end up in a worse position because he couldn't take advantage of his foresight?

Maybe it would be better to not…

No.

Takeru had finished with running away from things a long time ago.

Just because he was afraid of the unknown didn't mean he could avoid making the leap. He could never reach his goals if he wavered at the first unexpected event.

And the truth was… all he was really afraid of was being away from his friends. Everything else was just an attempt to rationalize that.

His choice made, Takeru came to attention. "Yes, ma'am," Takeru saluted crisply. "Thank you very much!"

"You should have said that from the start," Yuuko grumbled. "But you're welcome. I'll get started on the arrangements."

"Um, one thing," Takeru began hesitantly. "Could I… be a part of Cadet Squadron 207's training sometimes? Maybe, I don't know… as an instructor or… something?" he requested awkwardly.

Rank and authority was great, but Takeru still couldn't imagine fighting in this world without some kind of connection with his friends. He knew he was being a bit childish, but even so, he had to ask.

He wanted to see them.

It was silly. Subjectively speaking, he had seen them not too long ago, back in his world. But somehow, it felt like it had been a very long time. Maybe it was because his memories of their deaths had come back, or maybe there was some other reason, but… Takeru just really wanted to see them.

"Why?" Yuuko asked, frowning.

"They are… were… my friends," Takeru explained haltingly. "I just… need to see them, at least a little."

"It's unusual…" Yuuko said. Takeru's head drooped. "…but I suppose I can arrange something."

"Really—?!" Takeru exclaimed. "Thank you, Yuuko-sensei!"

"Yes, yes, you don't need to shout," Yuuko airily waived away his gratitude.

"Ah," Takeru bit his lip, trying to reign in his excitement. "Sorry…" he said. "Also, I'll need access to this floor," Takeru continued with a semblance of composure, changing the subject. "So we can talk privately at any time. You gave me that before too."

Yuuko put a hand to her cheek. "How bold of me…" she murmured jokingly.

Takeru couldn't help but flush as memories of Yuuko-sensei in compromising positions filled his head for a moment.

"Ahem," he coughed, banishing his distracting thoughts and hardening his expression and his will.

Yuuko had heard him out and agreed to keep him around for the time being. Takeru had successfully secured a position in the world again.

Now it was time to seal the deal.

"Once I give you proof… once you trust me…" Takeru moved, stepping inside Yuuko's personal space and intently meeting her gaze. "I'll help you complete the 00 Unit, and you'll help me accomplish my goals. Together, we'll make Alternative IV succeed."

"A common interest," Yuuko stated, her expression cold and unyielding once more in response to his declaration.

"That's right," he agreed. His heart was thudding crazily in his chest, but he was able to keep his outward expression fixed. Takeru stepped back slightly and held out a hand. "We'll be partners."

For several tense moments, Takeru waited, his hand hanging in the air between them. Yuuko considered it thoughtfully and then, just as Takeru was about to let his hand drop, she smiled slightly and grasped it.

"Interesting," her eyes gleamed as she shook his hand. "All right. If you can make me trust you, that is."

#

It was early evening by the time Yuuko finished creating his fake identity and enlistment papers and sent him off to meet his new—and at the same time old—squad.

She had come through on her promise to arrange something. He was now officially an observer from UN Command, at Yokohama to inspect the Eishi Training School's training methods. Takeru wasn't sure how she'd managed that, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. It would be kind of awkward to interact with his friends as something other than a peer, but at least now he had an excuse to see his friends even if he wasn't part of their training squad.

Takeru walked on to the familiar dirt field, nostalgically listening to the way the dirt crunched under his boots. How many kilometers had he run on this track? Too many to count, he was sure. He looked around, studying the buildings that were at once so similar and so different to his old school. Everything was exactly as he recalled.

"Excuse me… you there!" a familiar voice called out.

Takeru came to an abrupt halt, his stomach tightening with emotion.

"Ah…" an involuntary noise came from his throat.

_Meiya._

Somehow, even though he knew she would be there, Meiya still managed to catch him lost in his own thoughts. Seeing her was almost overwhelming.

Even in the unflattering blue military uniform she wore, she could still stun him with her beauty and regal bearing. Tall, fit, slender, yet amazingly curved in all the right places, with a face that a supermodel could envy… a real life warrior princess… and the bravest, truest friend anyone could ever ask for. Mitsurugi Meiya was amazing in every sense of the word.

He remembered seeing her just a day ago in another world.

He remembered her dying in Kashgar.

Takeru struggled against the urge to rush up and hug her tightly. It was just almost too much. If this was what it was going to be like seeing all the other girls, he almost wasn't looking forward to meeting them again. He had learned how to deal with all his emotions, but sometimes… sometimes it was tough to manage.

"Is something the matter?" Meiya asked, taken aback by his pained reaction.

Takeru took several seconds to master himself. "Ah… no," he said finally. "Nothing's wrong."

"That is good," she said. "Then I must ask you not to go any further. This place is dangerous for outsiders."

"I'm not an outsider," he protested instinctively. Meiya calling him an outsider stung. Admittedly, he was still dressed in his school uniform since Yuuko couldn't be bothered to find a military one his size on such short notice, but it still bothered him.

Meiya frowned, suspicious. "State your—"

"Mitsurugi, it's all right," another familiar voice interrupted Meiya. A beautiful brown-haired woman in blue fatigues came up from behind Meiya.

_Marimo-chan._

Memories of horror blended with happier ones. Takeru kept a tight rein on his reaction, managing to minimize it to gripping the fabric of his pants tightly for a moment.

"…Are you 2nd Lt. Shirogane Takeru?" Sergeant Jinguuji Marimo asked uncertainly as she noted his strange uniform like Meiya had.

"Yes," Takeru confirmed.

"Good evening, sir!" Marimo came to attention and saluted, quickly followed by Meiya. "Welcome to Yokohama Base. I am Sergeant Jinguuji Marimo. Professor Kouzuki has informed me of your arrival," she greeted him formally. Technically, she didn't really have to salute since he wasn't actually in uniform, but given how much his old school uniform strangely looked like a UN Army dress uniform, it seemed she was erring on the side of caution.

Takeru's return salute was sharp. "Thank you, sergeant. At ease," he replied in kind. It was weird to interact with Marimo-chan as an officer. Even after all his experiences, it just didn't feel quite right. But it would certainly make a bad first impression if he acted casually like he really wanted to, not to mention violate military etiquette. "I'm glad to be here," he said sincerely. It wasn't really a lie, even if it wasn't quite the truth either. Only a madman would want to be back in this world. But, seeing Meiya and Marimo-chan's faces, alive and… Well, seeing them made things a lot more tolerable.

"I apologize, sir!" Meiya apologized hastily. "I was not aware that you were…!"

"It's all right," Takeru cut her off with a small, wistful smile. As odd as it had been to hear Marimo's stiff formality, it was even worse with Meiya. "I didn't mean to interrupt your training," he said, nodded to her still running squad mates. "As you were."

Marimo nodded. "Assemble the squad!" she barked loudly, quickly bringing the other cadets in the squad running.

_Ayamine._

_Chizuru._

_Tama._

Takeru couldn't stop his mind from launching into a kaleidoscope of images as he saw Ayamine Kei, Sakaki Chizuru, and Tamase Miki approach. It was almost overwhelming. But this time he was prepared and was at least able to hide his reaction. Still, it just felt… really good to see them alive.

"Squad 207 assembled!" Chizuru reported as the four cadets lined up at parade rest.

"Attention!" Marimo ordered. "This is 2nd Lt. Shirogane Takeru. He will be observing your training as part of an evaluation by UN Pacific Command," she explained briefly. "I am sure you won't disappoint him," Marimo finished, her voice subtly menacing.

As Marimo stepped aside, Takeru stepped closer and returned their salute. "Relax, cadets," Takeru met their gazes one by one and smiled, letting some of the happiness he felt at seeing them show on his face. The four cadets looked back at him, their curiosity and tension plain. "I'm Shirogane Takeru," he said awkwardly. "Like Sergeant Jinguuji said, I'll be hanging around when you train from time to time. But don't worry about my presence and just act like you always have."

It was probably an impossible thing to ask of them. What cadet could act normally when some strange officer was around to evaluate them? This time, Takeru had no idea how he was going to get his friends to accept him. The difference in rank was already making things difficult.

"That's all," Takeru said. "As you were."

"Sir!"

"The second lieutenant will be observing our training starting tomorrow," the sergeant said. "Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the cadets acknowledged her in unison.

Marimo folded her arms under her breasts, and Takeru valiantly struggled not to sneak appreciative glances at the effects it had on her uniform. "Then we'll continue training for the remaining ten minutes," she announced after glancing at her watch. "Get moving, cadets!" After they had run off, Marimo glanced uncertainly at Takeru. Clearly she didn't quite know what to make of him any more than her cadets did. "Would you like to stay and watch, sir?"

"I might as well get started with my observation duty," he nodded. "Afterwards, I'll need someone to show me around." In truth, Takeru probably knew more about the layout of the base than anyone on the track, but it was a good excuse to spend some time with his friends.

"Yes, sir. I'll be happy to give you a tour of the base after training is finished."

"Actually… I'd rather one of the cadets do it." Not that he would mind spending time with Marimo-chan, but after so many things had already changed, he wanted to get back on some familiar ground.

"Sir?" she blinked.

"It'll be good to get to know the squad I'm observing," Takeru explained vaguely.

"Of course, sir," Marimo acquiesced.

The conversation lapsed after that. Takeru watched the cadets run around the track nostalgically for several minutes, using the time to put the emotions that had been swirling around in him at the sight of them to rest. By the time Marimo called out the command to form up, he finally felt ready to interact with his old squad mates normally.

"That will be all for today's training," Marimo announced. "Dismissed! Sakaki, stay."

As Meiya, Ayamine, and Tama departed, Chizuru remained behind with Marimo and Takeru. "Sakaki, the second lieutenant is new to the base and has requested a tour. Show him around and then escort him to barracks and ensure he has everything he needs."

"Yes, ma'am!" the squad leader of the cadets responded.

#

Once again, Takeru barreled through Chizuru's tour of the base, hurrying her along at every opportunity. He knew he was annoying her, but he couldn't help it. It was just too boring to be introduced to the layout of the base he could walk through in his sleep.

Besides, needling the Class Rep was an old pastime of his.

Takeru strode into the noisy PX cheerfully, eager to spend some time with his friends once more and pleased that he had completed the obligatory base tour in record time—though by the sound of Chizuru's muttering behind him that she thought he couldn't hear, she wasn't quite as happy about it. Seeing her valiantly try to contain her rising irritation was just too cute. Another person would have missed it, but Takeru knew all of Chizuru's mannerisms well enough to see that she was probably fantasizing about choking him to death and was desperately trying to hide that fact.

Takeru was starting to think that maybe the whole rank thing had some upsides to it after all.

"Sakaki-san, over here!" Tama called brightly, waving her small arm energetically at the Chizuru.

"Ah…" the Class Rep glanced uncertainly between her friends and Takeru.

"It's all right," Takeru nodded towards the waving Tama, who apparently hadn't seen him. "Go join your friends. You can show me the barracks after eating."

"Thank you, sir," she said, saluting.

After getting his food tray, Takeru quietly followed Chizuru, who had gotten her food just ahead of him and gone to sit with her squad.

"That was fast," Takeru heard Meiya comment as she glanced questioningly at Chizuru when the brown-haired girl sat down next to her with a sigh.

"Because he didn't need my help at all," Chizuru complained, stabbing her main course of fish almost viciously with her chopsticks.

"Hm?" Meiya tilted her head.

"He knew this place like the back of his hand." Chizuru's green eyes narrowed further, "…and he clearly wanted to get the tour over as fast as possible." There was a hint of acid in her voice.

Maybe he'd needled her a bit too much.

"Isn't that a good thing, Class Rep?" Takeru responded, deliberately using his traditional nickname for Chizuru as he made his presence known. He had to stifle a grin at the way the cadets practically jumped in their seats at his unexpected appearance. "It just means I'm well prepared for my new posting," he commented, setting his tray down opposite of Meiya and sitting down with them.

"…Class Rep?" Ayamine Kei mouthed quietly from his right, her violet eyes looking at him curiously.

Chizuru's eyebrow twitched at Ayamine's usage of Takeru's nickname for her. Then she remembered he had heard her complaining and paled. "I…" the Class Rep started nervously. "I didn't know you were joining us, sir, or I would have…"

"I just want to get to know the cadets I'll be observing a bit," Takeru interrupted. "I hope you don't mind, Class Rep."

"N-no, of course not," she shook her head. "But, um… can I ask… why do you call me Class Rep?" Chizuru asked timidly.

"Sorry about that," Takeru smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "You look just like my class representative from high school. You don't mind, do you?"

"…no, sir," Chizuru said reluctantly.

The expression on her face said she definitely minded, and clearly she wasn't buying his explanation. But she was unable to bring herself to protest, given the differences in rank between them. Not that it would have mattered either way.

"Great!" he grinned, pleased, and then took a bite of his meal.

Takeru's satisfaction didn't last long though. The squad ate in awkward silence, each of the girls shooting uneasy glances at him periodically. It was hardly the reunion he had wanted with his friends. Somehow, he needed to get them to relax a bit around him.

Takeru sighed and set down his chopsticks with an audible click, drawing four pairs of eyes to him. "Listen," Takeru said finally, unable to take the silence anymore. "I know you're all probably uncomfortable about me being here. But I just want you all to know that I'm not here to judge you, or report on any one of you, and I'm not really into formalities. I really do want to get to know you all, since we'll be working quite a bit together in the future. So it's okay to relax a bit around me." He paused, giving them a friendly grin, "I won't tell on you."

Takeru watched them consider his statement, praying that they would believe him.

"Then… can I ask a question?" Chizuru ventured finally.

"Of course!" Takeru nodded eagerly.

"The instructor said that you were here to observe, but what does that actually mean?"

Takeru hid a wince. That was a tough one to start with. It was just a story Yuuko had made up for him, but it wasn't like he could say that. He would have to make something convincing up.

"Um, basically…" he began haltingly. "I'm here to observe the Yokohama Eishi Training School's training methods… to see how we can further streamline and improve TSF pilot training around the world."

They continued to look at him in silence. Takeru palms grew clammy. Were they not buying it? _Crap_, he thought. _Think!_

"…various training schools can have different training methods, based on where they are and who the instructors are, right?" he continued, trying to sound confident. "The things you learn here may not be quite the same as the things cadets would learn in America or Europe, for example. Different countries have different ways to fight, after all. So we're trying to take a look at the unique things different countries teach, and see if we can find new things that will be useful to incorporate into our universal training methods."

Takeru had actually thought along those lines before, after fighting alongside American TSF pilots and seeing the differences in how they piloted and fought, though he'd never really put it into words. Of course, he'd just made up his explanation on the spot to try and convince the girls, and as far as he knew the UN was doing no such thing. It sounded like a good idea to him though, now that he'd voiced it.

"That's amazing, 2nd Lt. Shirogane!" Tama gushed, looking at him with sparkling eyes.

"Ahahaha," he laughed in relief, the tension in his gut relaxing a bit. "Thanks."

"As you are evaluating eishi training methods, does that mean that you are an eishi, sir?" Meiya asked.

"Yup."

"…no unit patch?" Ayamine gave him a questioning glance.

"Ah, well, I'm kind of in-between assignments right now. So I'm not part of any unit at the moment."

"…last unit kicked you out?"

"Ayamine!" the Class Rep growled, appalled.

"It's okay," Takeru waved Chizuru off and met Ayamine's challenging gaze. He'd almost forgotten about Ayamine's authority issues. "My last unit was…" he paused, closing his eyes for a moment as a wave of fresh grief slammed into him. "…It was destroyed fighting the BETA," Takeru said quietly. "I'm the only one left."

The cadets muffled gasps. He almost regretted answering, but somehow he couldn't lie to them, not about that.

"…sorry," Ayamine bit her lip, looking away.

"It's fine," Takeru mustered a faint smile, trying to look reassuring. "Like I said, we'll be working together. We're all in the same UN Army, so we're comrades, and I think that part of being comrades is gradually learning about each other. Feel free to ask me whatever questions you want."

"…Thank you, sir," Chizuru said, her face pale as she picked up the conversation after Ayamine didn't respond. "I… I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, Class Rep," Takeru managed a more genuine smile. "Now, that's enough depressing stuff! Anyone else have questions for me?"

The awkward silence returned.

"No?" Takeru asked disappointedly. "Okay. My turn then. The Comprehensive Combat Skill Evaluation is coming up soon. Are you guys ready?"

Chizuru straightened, assuming what Takeru privately labeled as her bossy pose. "Yes, sir!" she responded emphatically. "We won't fail again!"

Even as her squad mates echoed her, Takeru knew it wouldn't be quite so simple. The squad still had deep divides that kept them from working together well. Without him around to bridge the gap, would they be able to pass? Was there something he could do to help them?

"Good," Takeru nodded seriously. "It's the sum total of your first half of training, so your evaluators won't forgive any mistakes." Passing that evaluation meant progressing to actual Tactical Surface Fighter training, and the faster he could get them into TSFs, the better.

A nervous look flashed across Chizuru's face for an instant, almost too subtle for Takeru to catch. "Yes!" she responded.

"We have over a week until it begins, so Yoroi should return in time to join us," Meiya said. "We need Squad 207 to be as strong as possible when the time comes."

"Yoroi?" Takeru asked, faking curiosity.

"Our other squad member, Yoroi Mikoto," Tama answered timidly. "Yoroi-san had to be hospitalized after the last training exercise."

"Yoroi's survival skills are second to none," the Class Rep praised her absent squad member.

"I see," Takeru smiled. "I can't wait to meet her."

It was nothing but the truth. The group wouldn't feel quite complete until Mikoto showed up.

"We'll be ready when the time comes," Chizuru insisted. Whether she was trying to convince Takeru or herself wasn't clear. "We won't disappoint you, 2nd Lt. Shirogane!"

"That's good to hear," he grinned. "I'll be looking forward to it."

He was going to pull these girls through the battlefields ahead alive, no matter what. But for now, Takeru was content to just bask in their company as the conversation moved to lighter matters. Somehow, he'd managed to get them to relax a bit in his presence. Things weren't quite normal, and there was still wariness and a good deal of reserve in their interactions with him, but at least he'd been able to break the ice. Takeru would keep working on it until he could get them to treat him as a friend.

The days ahead would be hard. But as long as they were with him, even a terrible world under siege by BETA could be endured.

After dinner, Takeru and Chizuru parted with the rest of the squad to finish up his tour. Takeru made a conscious effort not to bug her too much for the second half of the tour, if only to help make sure the Class Rep didn't develop high blood pressure. They ended the tour at his room in the barracks, which by some trick of fate—or more likely a machination of Yuuko—was once again the same room he had been assigned before. Well, that was fine by Takeru. It was close to his squad, and he had a lot of mostly fond memories of the room.

Takeru sank down onto the bed with a yawn, suddenly feeling tired. It had been an extremely long day, filled with an incredible amount of stress. He'd been thrown into another world, relived a ton of traumatic memories, matched wits against Yuuko-sensei, and then been forced to meet his friends again for the first time. Still, he thought things had turned out all right. He'd won a place in the world and seen his friends again, so he'd accomplished what he'd wanted to.

Yet all he had done was finish the very start of the opening act. The road ahead was still long. He still wasn't even sure how to begin accomplishing some of his goals. But that could wait until tomorrow.

For now, all Takeru wanted was some sleep.

He could worry… about the future… later…

#

That night, Takeru dreamed of home.

In his dream, there was a girl with long red hair and matching eyes.

She was a stupid girl… not to mention loud, short-tempered, violent, disrespectful, a crybaby, and… well, he could list her bad traits all day.

But she could also be gentle. She always tried to take care of him, in her own clumsy way. She always was there by his side. They played together, ate together, studied together, laughed together, fought and cried and…

They had grown up together.

They did everything together.

And all the sudden, he'd realized that she'd grown into a stunning young woman.

For the longest time, he had no idea how to react to that. So he'd firmly ignored it.

But things changed.

Somewhere along the way, without even realizing it, Shirogane Takeru had fallen in love with Kagami Sumika.

And by some miracle, she had loved him back.

…Well, no. To Takeru, it wasn't a miracle at all. It was pretty much an utterly natural extension of their relationship. For a stupid girl like Sumika, he was the only one that would do. And for Takeru, spending his life with Sumika was just right. They did everything together, and always had. Why would love be anything different for them? They belonged together.

He needed her by his side just as she needed him.

To them, that was happiness.

Without her, a part of Takeru was left void.

Takeru missed his home.

But more than that, he missed Sumika.

#

Muv-Luv was the created by Age, not me. All the concepts and characters from the franchise are theirs. This is a non-profit work of fiction.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading the second chapter of Breaking the Tide.

So things are already starting to diverge. Considering the trend presented in Muv-Luv, where Takeru starts out as a civilian, then in Unlimited becomes a soldier (but does so too late to help anything), then in Alternative earns his commission significantly faster, I thought for his next journey it would be natural to take it a step further. Hopefully I presented it well.

I alone proofread this chapter, so there may be (or rather, almost certainly will be) mistakes that I missed. If you see any, please point them out. Anyways, please tell me what you think. Any comments and/or criticism you have on grammar, spelling, or the story in general would be highly appreciated.


	3. Breaking Ground

**Muv-Luv: Breaking the Tide**

**Chapter 3 / Breaking Ground**

By HitokiriOTD

#

**October 23, 2001**

Sometimes Takeru really hated how often he dreamed.

"Sumika…" he whispered, staring up at the shadowed ceiling of his room in Yokohama Base. Even in the darkness, he could visualize where every crack and smudge was. The thin mattress beneath him was a far cry from his bed back in his childhood home, but he felt comfortable enough laying on it.

Just a day had passed since he'd seen her, but already he was already missing Sumika, missing his home. Getting homesick so quickly… sometimes Takeru felt like he hadn't grown up much at all.

He wanted to see her.

But he couldn't. Right now, all he could see was a brain in a jar. Maybe he could find the body Yuuko-sensei had created for the 00 Unit, but it would just be an empty, lifeless shell. Without Sumika's memories, Sumika's soul, there was no point in seeing it. And Sumika's soul was currently trapped in a horrifying prison, with no body, no light, no sound, no taste, no touch, no…

Takeru's nails dug deep into his palms.

He really wanted to see Sumika. And he wanted her to be able to see him back. But, for that to happen, first he needed to help Yuuko complete the 00 Unit.

For that to happen, the Sumika of this world would have to die.

That was… all he could do for her.

Sumika would die and be reborn as the 00 Unit.

To save the world… to save his friends… to defeat the BETA and return home again… he would have to knowingly make that happen.

It was awful beyond words. But… he had made the choice long ago. He would stain his hands and kill his heart if it meant achieving the things he needed to do.

With a sigh, Takeru pushed away his melancholy thoughts and got out of bed, the mattress creaking beneath him as he moved. There was no point in dwelling on it. He was where he was, and wishing wouldn't help him accomplish his goals faster or get him back home any sooner.

Takeru glanced at the clock on the desk next to his bed and groaned. "Way too early," he muttered, shaking his head ruefully as he made his way to the sink to wash his face.

When he was done getting ready, Takeru left his room and began walking purposefully towards the Post Exchange, intent on hunting down a proper uniform before meeting the girls of the 207th when they started their training.

It ended up being easier than he'd thought it would be. There were a surplus of male uniforms in storage for obvious reasons that Takeru didn't really enjoy dwelling on. Though he couldn't help but wonder why there had always been delays in getting his uniforms in the other worlds.

Proper clothing secured, Takeru headed back to his room to stow away his new garments and change.

It was strange and yet at the same time natural to put on the UN military uniform again. Somehow though, it felt right.

"_I shall fulfill my duty to protect international peace and stability by rigidly adhering to the code of conduct…_

…_By cultivating virtue, training my mind and body, polishing my skills, by not taking part in political actions, and by giving my undivided attention to the completion of the mission..._

…_I swear never to shrink from danger, but to risk my life to fulfill my responsibility toward humanity."_

Takeru mentally recited the enlistment oath for soldiers of the UN Army. There was no one around to witness it, but he swore the oath to himself once again anyway. When he was finished, he finally felt like he was once again officially a soldier of the UN's 11th Pacific Army, even though Yuuko had taken care of all the details the day before. It just hadn't felt legitimate until he took the oath again, even if it was only in his own head.

…It was kind of weird, even for him. Maybe the whole dimensional hopping thing was messing with his head more than he'd thought.

After the oath, there was only one thing left. Takeru looked at the pin in his hands. He had struggled a lot in previous worlds to earn his wings. It felt strange for them to just be given to him on the first day. Still, he had earned his pilot wings many times over, even if it hadn't happened in the world he was currently in. Takeru fixed the pin to the front of his uniform and glanced in the mirror, nodding in satisfaction at the sight.

After he finished dressing, he left his room to meet his squad for morning PT and start the process of winning their respect and hopefully friendship all over again.

Last time around, the first stage in his plan had been to leave his fellow trainees in his dust on the track. The surprised and chagrined expressions he earned when he lapped them for the first time had been delicious. This time, he wasn't a trainee, so he couldn't do that again. He watched the squad's initial laps around the track in thoughtful silence.

The answer came to him just as his old squad mates formed up near Marimo, panting and sweating from the exertion as they finally finished their laps.

Marimo was merciless. "Okay, next!" she barked. "Grab the gear in the cages and march ten kilometers!"

"Un—understood!" Tama managed.

The cadets ran into the nearby storerooms. In his world, the rooms had been used by school clubs, but here they were used to store military equipment, including the cadets' gear for training.

"What?" Takeru asked in mock surprise, glancing at the gear the cadets were putting on. "They're not doing full gear?"

A profound silence enveloped the room as the cadets froze and stared at him with dawning horror. Inside Takeru, the part of him that still giggled at the thought of drawing on peoples' faces as they slept was dancing with glee.

The sergeant looked at him, frowning at his comment. "No, sir," Marimo said after a moment. "Not at this point in their training."

"When I was at this point in my training, I was running in full gear," Takeru commented casually.

Tama's eyes started watering piteously behind Marimo's back.

"…Sir," Marimo nodded. She turned towards her trainees, who looked like someone had just shot their dog. "You heard him!" the sergeant barked. "You'll be marching in full gear today!"

The cadets stiffened to attention. "Understood!" they replied and ran off to don the heavy gear, shooting him dark looks when they thought he wasn't looking.

Takeru could only smile nostalgically. Last time, he had intentionally provoked Marimo into making him run in full gear in order to show off to his squad mates.

…the things he did to impress girls.

But, since he couldn't do that again, he would just have to do what he could. Mainly, abusing his authority to tort—that is, train his old squad mates. Maybe they wouldn't feel motivated by his example again, but this time he had other ways to encourage them to train harder.

#

A warm breeze ruffled Takeru's hair as he walked slowly out towards the track with his hands in his pockets. Crickets chirped nosily, and the moon shone brightly down on the base. Stars gleamed and blinked in the night sky, seeming astonishingly bright to Takeru, who had been born and raised in a big city. There was something majestic about the sight, and yet he couldn't help but think about all the lights of humanity that had been snuffed out to make the view possible.

His first official day of training with the 207th was over. Takeru felt pretty positive about the results. Certainly, his new—old—squad had taken their training to a new level, whether they wanted to or not. He probably hadn't helped his goal of winning their friendship much, but if they were better able to survive because they trained harder... well, that was an acceptable trade. To wind down, he was enjoying the night air while he wandered over to where he knew Meiya would be exercising.

Just like he remembered, he found her jogging around the track. Despite how hard he'd pushed the squad, including Meiya, she still forced herself to continue her independent training. Meiya's strong will never failed to impress him.

Watching Meiya run, Takeru appreciated her long, graceful strides, and the way her long blue ponytail bounced and swirled behind her. He also admired the way a certain other part of her bounced and swayed as she ran, muted though it was by the black uniform jacket she had donned over her blue UN Army battle dress uniform.

Somehow, Takeru thought he'd grown a lot more lecherous over the past few years. He didn't think he'd paid quite so much attention to certain details the last time he had gone through everything. Maybe it was a side effect of his experiences with the girls back home.

"Hm?" Meiya came to a stop as she noticed his figure standing near the track. "Good evening, 2nd Lt. Shirogane!"

"Meiya," Takeru greeted, unconsciously using her first name as he returned her salute, causing her to frown slightly. "Ah… sorry," he apologized, noticing her discomfort. It was hard for him to remember that he was a stranger to them. From her perspective, he was someone she had only just met. For him to use her first name, and forgoing any honorifics on top of that, must have seemed rude and unpleasant to her.

"I do not mind, sir," she replied stiffly, though her expression didn't really look pleased. Actually, her expression was pretty impassive, but Takeru could tell.

"Sorry," Takeru repeated. "I keep acting like we already know each other. It's a bad habit of mine, I know."

The problem was he did know her. He knew her really, really well. That's what made acting out the play of getting to know her all over again so difficult for Takeru. How could he talk to a girl he loved like she was a distant stranger?

He really missed his Meiya.

She sighed slightly at his response and glanced sidelong at him, but remained silent.

"Anyway, you can relax," he smiled weakly. "Like I said yesterday, I'm not really into formalities. When we're alone, you don't need to salute and stuff."

"…Yes, sir," she acknowledged slowly, looking nonplussed at his violation of protocol as she relaxed her stance.

Takeru frowned slightly in disappointment at her response. It looked like he had a long road ahead of him to get his friends to treat him normally. "What are you doing out here?" he asked, changing the subject.

"I have been running laps on the track."

"Part of your daily training? You're really dedicated," he praised.

"I… yes. Thank you, sir," she responded uncertainly, looking a bit off balance by his praise.

"Since you're working so hard, you must have a goal in mind, right?"

"…I wish to become an Eishi as soon as possible," she explained after a moment, using the Japanese term for TSF pilots.

"Why?" Takeru prompted.

"My reason is quite ordinary," Meiya said, folding her arms. She closed her eyes for a moment, "I want to protect something."

"Can I ask what that is?"

Meiya opened her eyes to look at him. "This planet…" she announced. "As well as the people of this country… and Japan as a nation."

"I see."

Even though he'd heard it before, he was yet again struck by feelings of admiration for Meiya. Her desire to protect resonated deeply with Takeru. But, her desire to protect Japan as a nation… it would cause her a lot of pain in the future.

Takeru wanted to do something about that, but he had no idea what he could do. The mire of agendas that would tear Japan apart was vast and complex.

Still… He remembered Meiya's anguished face, her desperate struggles... her worries for her sister…

_Yuuhi._

Meiya's older sister, Mitsurugi Yuuhi—no, here she was Koubuin Yuuhi, the Shogun of Japan.

It was strange to think of her as the Shogun. It was strange to Takeru that there was a Shogun at all; in his world the Shogunate had been abolished long before anyone alive had been born. But Yuuhi especially… her regal dignity certainly fit, but he remembered too much of her as a girl his own age to think of her as the Shogun instead of just Yuuhi. It was hard to think of a girl he'd dated as the Shogun.

More, he remembered Meiya and Yuuhi together. Laughing, conspiring, fighting, making up… they had been close sisters, heated rivals, and best friends. In this world though, that wasn't the case.

In this world, they suffered a lot because of who they were.

Takeru wanted to do something about that, but he didn't know what he could do.

…No.

That wasn't right.

He wanted to do something to help them.

So he would.

That was all there was to it.

"2nd Lt. Shirogane," Meiya's voice interrupted his thoughts. "If I may ask… do you also have something you want to protect?"

"Hmm...? Yeah."

"May I ask what?"

"You."

"Wha—!?" Meiya blurted, stepping back in surprise. Her shocked expression and ensuing blush, faintly visible in the moonlight, looked adorable to Takeru. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again, but no words came out.

Oops. He hadn't meant to say that. His brain had still been stuck on thinking about what he could do for the pair of sisters he loved.

"I want to protect all my comrades," Takeru took pity on the gaping girl. "You…" Takeru repeated, meeting her sapphire eyes seriously, "…the Class Rep, Ayamine, Tama, Mikoto, Marimo-chan, Yuuko-sensei, and everyone else in this base. I want to protect everyone. And…"

He paused for a moment, closing his eyes. The image of humanity's home shone in his mind's eye, a bright blue jewel amidst the sea of stars.

"…I want to protect Earth and humanity."

That hadn't changed.

A soldier had to fight for the people beside him. Captain Isumi had taught him that. Grand ideas like fighting for humanity, or for a nation, or for an ideal were great. But ultimately, those were just too big, too impersonal. But fighting for the people beside you… his heart could firmly grasp that simple concept perfectly.

At the same time though, Shirogane Takeru was the only witness to humanity's fall in that other place and time. He had no choice but to carry that burden, to remember it and fight to prevent it.

"You are… admirable, 2nd Lt. Shirogane," Meiya said quietly, giving him a tentative smile. "Now I understand…"

"What?"

"Why you have been entrusted with such an important mission… you are indeed special."

"I'm not really…" Takeru began to deny automatically.

Certainly he knew he was special, but that was only because he had somehow become a strange, unstable existence that could move across parallel worlds. When you looked at Shirogane Takeru's accomplishments, he really was nothing special without that.

He'd made so many mistakes.

He'd left so many people behind.

Takeru was sure that if someone amazing like Yuuko-sensei or even Meiya had the same power, they would achieve so much more than he ever could.

"You need not be humble," Meiya cut him off. "Did you not survive fighting the BETA on the frontlines? Were you not picked for a mission that could affect all of humanity? To accomplish so much… you must have a very specific goal in mind."

Maybe Meiya was more comfortable around him than he'd thought. She was actually conversing normally with him. Takeru had missed that. He'd had no idea just how much he'd missed talking with Meiya until she reminded him of what it used to be like.

Takeru swallowed the lump in his throat, reigning in his emotions. After a moment, he nodded, "Yeah… people can do amazing things with the right goal in mind."

"Oh…?" she murmured. "Those are good, concise words. 'People can do amazing things with the right goal in mind.' I will remember it."

He had learned it from her, during his very first journey to this world. But he couldn't tell her that. "Yeah," he agreed, smiling wistfully. "It's a nice, simple saying. A really great friend taught me those words."

"Is that so?"

Yeah. A really, really great friend. A better one than he had ever deserved, in his opinion.

"Well…" Takeru coughed and changed the subject. "I was just going to run around a bit. Want to join me?"

"I see. I was just about to finish," Meiya shook her head regretfully. Then she blinked and suddenly the relaxed Meiya he had been talking to disappeared, "I mean… if you would like me to, then—!"

"…_perhaps we can run together next time." _Meiya had told him that last time, offering to train together with him of her own free will. It was such a simple thing, but…

"No, it's okay," Takeru interrupted, swallowing his disappointment. For a few precious moments, Meiya had seemed to forget about his rank and interacted normally with him. He was making progress after all, even if he desperately wished it had lasted longer. "You can go, Meiya. See you later."

"Yes, sir."

Takeru wistfully watched her back for a moment as she departed. When she disappeared into the nearby building entrance, he headed to the cages to don the same heavy gear he'd made his friends run in before beginning his own laps around the track.

#

That night, Takeru dreamed of home again.

In his dream, there was a girl with midnight blue hair and eyes like sapphires.

She was, for all intents and purposes, a princess. The girl possessed wealth and power that a regular student like him couldn't even hope to comprehend. Beyond that, she was peerless beauty with an incredible intellect, and she had her own ninja-maid. They came from utterly different worlds, and the gap between them was enormous in almost every way.

Yet, she had come seeking him, all because of some offhand words he had spoken to her when they had met utterly by chance in a neighborhood park when they were little kids.

He had promised to marry her when they grew up.

She had taken him seriously.

…really, she had no common sense whatsoever.

But, no matter how eccentric or rich, no matter how much she had overturned his peaceful ordinary life, he had been drawn to her.

By some strange miracle, she had loved him. She had loved him for years, holding on to his promise like a lifeline as she was subsumed beneath the overwhelming weight of the duty as a member the Mitsurugi dynasty. After they had met again, even though he had forgotten her entirely, even though he was just a regular goofball kid while she could probably influence the whole country, she had fallen in love with him again as a person rather than just an idea.

He hadn't known what to do. He had been afraid of upsetting his comfortable life, of the choices she was unwittingly presenting to him. So he had waffled and dithered until suddenly they had crossed some deadline he hadn't known existed, and she had left. She had vanished from his life as if she had never been there.

But she had been there. No matter how cleanly she erased her presence, she couldn't reverse the time they'd spent together.

Somewhere along the way, she had become an irreplaceable part of his life.

And somewhere along the way, Shirogane Takeru had started to love Mitsurugi Meiya.

So he went to get her back. Against all odds, and with a little bit of help, he had been able to.

In the end, he'd fulfilled his promise to her.

Their relationship had been like a fairytale from the start, and like in a fairytale, they built their happily ever after together.

Takeru missed his home.

More than that though, he missed Meiya.

#

**October 24, 2001**

Marimo stared down at her notes for the upcoming day's lectures, struggling to focus. For some reason though, she couldn't seem to make much progress, even though she only had a few hours before she would have to actually conduct the lessons. It was early in the morning, to be sure, but she wasn't too tired to concentrate. It wasn't because she was sick, or worried about some major event, or anything serious like that.

If she had to pinpoint a cause… yes, it would probably have to be the man sitting next to her, staring at her as she tried to work.

She sneaked a sidelong glance to the left, then glanced hurriedly back down at her notes. Yes, he was still staring.

Second Lieutenant Shirogane Takeru was a very strange man. Marimo hadn't always thought so. At first, he'd seemed like a capable officer, if a bit too relaxed about some things. He was a combat veteran whose skills Yuuko had personally vouched for. How could Marimo not have some high expectations after hearing that?

But now Marimo's expectations were sinking by the moment.

He just kept staring.

She knew he was an observer, but she was pretty sure he was taking his job a bit too literally. Didn't he have something else to do other than watch her work?

Marimo couldn't take it anymore. "…Sir?" she gritted out finally, unable to keep her irritation from coloring her voice as she set down her notes and turned to face him fully. "Do you need something?"

She had politely asked him the same question before, several times in fact, when he'd first showed up in her office over an hour before. He'd waved her off each time. This time, the sharpness of her voice practically demanded an answer.

Outranked or not, there was only so much Marimo would put up with.

Far from being cowed though, Shirogane Takeru smiled slowly, looking almost mischievous. "I'm glad you asked!" he said cheerfully, oblivious to the way Marimo's hands twitched in fury. "I was thinking, since your lesson plans for today aren't quite ready…" the sergeant's teeth audibly ground together, but Shirogane blithely continued, "…that maybe we could do something a bit different."

Marimo leapt out of her chair and wrapped her hands around Shirogane's throat.

…at least, she did in her imagination.

In reality, she could only stare at the beaming second lieutenant in disbelief.

"Was that why you—!" it took a titanic effort of will to choke back her angry outburst. Marimo counted slowly backwards, taking deep breaths. She had to calm down before she did something rash. Assaulting a superior officer would have been satisfying, but it was also a good way to ruin her life. "Haaa…" Marimo heaved a heavy sigh as reason successfully quelled her irritation.

Infuriating manipulation aside, it was true that her lesson plan was a bit too hazy to be put to use. Normally she'd just focus on physical training instead, but… well, he did outrank her. She pretty much had to hear him out anyway, whether she liked it or not.

Marimo stopped rubbing her throbbing temples. "…What would you like to do, sir?" she asked eventually, deeply reluctant.

#

Yokohama Base's PX was noisy and bustling by the time Squad 207 was finished with the day's lectures and exercises. Takeru was looking forward to eating his fried chicken meal set, synthetic though it was. Somewhere along the line he'd gotten used to the bland and sometimes strange tastes, and when he was hungry he could even enjoy it. That being said, he still sometimes fantasied about the culinary masterpieces he had enjoyed back in his home world.

As he took a bite of his artificial fried chicken, Takeru couldn't help but feel a pang of longing for Tsukuyomi's cooking. Despite that, he shoveled food into his mouth energetically, partly because he was genuinely hungry and partly to distract himself from the awkward silence of his friends.

Takeru had been acting out his role as an observer for two days, but he hadn't made too much progress in breaking the ice that separated him from his old friends. His talk with Meiya on the track a few nights before was his greatest success yet, a fact which was simultaneously encouraging and discouraging. It was encouraging because it was a sign of hope, and discouraging because such a meager success was all he had to show for his efforts.

He was being too impatient. Takeru knew that, even if his heart chafed at every awkward silence or distant word his friends spoke. While he had known them for years, they had only known him for a few days. All he could do was be patient and keep trying. Eventually, he would be able to break down the walls between them.

"-irogane? 2nd Lt. Shirogane?"

Takeru blinked, startled back into the present. "Huh?"

"Are you… okay, Second Lieutenant?" Tama asked hesitantly.

"I'm fine. Why?" Takeru gave her a puzzled look.

"Um… that's…" Tama groped for an explanation.

"You looked like you were thinking about something painful," Chizuru butted in, taking pity on the flustered Tama.

"Yeah," Takeru heaved a sigh. "I was just remembering your pitiful performance in the war game earlier."

"That was—!" the Class Rep bit her lip and looked away.

Takeru had hijacked one of Marimo's lectures—and boy, had Marimo-chan been mad—in order to play a war game against the cadets. He'd pitched it to Marimo as a comprehensive test of their tactical thinking abilities, but in truth he'd had another objective. Not only did he have to win their respect and earn their friendship, he also had to help bind them together as a team.

The reason the squad had failed their last evaluation wasn't because they were lacking in ability. No, it was because their teamwork had sucked. It was up to him to help change that. So he'd designed a scenario that required them to work smoothly together to accomplish their objective.

They'd failed miserably.

It was disappointing, but not unexpected. Hopefully it at least would get them thinking about their teamwork issues. It would also give him a solid excuse to meddle.

"That was a huge failure," Takeru said bluntly when Chizuru remained silent. "I don't know how you all expect to pass the evaluation when you can't even work together to win a war game in a classroom."

The girls were unable to say a word in their own defense. The atmosphere around the table became downright gloomy.

Takeru bit back a groan. Maybe he'd gone too far. "Listen, you can't afford to fail the evaluation again, right?"

"…Yes, sir," the Class Rep replied slowly.

"Since that's the case, I'd like to ask you all something," Takeru said seriously, looking at each of his friends in turn.

"What?" Chizuru asked uneasily.

"Do you all have something you want to protect?"

"Eh…?" Ayamine made a questioning noise.

"You don't have to tell me what it is," he said quickly. "Just… do you all have something worth risking your life for?"

They all did. He knew they did. But Takeru needed to get them thinking about working together again.

"Where did this come from?" Chizuru wondered, taken aback.

Meiya's gaze was contemplative. "'People can do amazing things with the right goal in mind…'" she quoted softly. "…Is that it?"

Takeru nodded at her, pleased that Meiya was once again unwittingly helping him drive the conversation towards the point he wanted to make. "Right. And if you all want to have a chance at passing the exam, maybe you need to think about why you're all here in the first place again. Because today, I didn't see much effort out of this squad."

"Wait a second!" Chizuru protested. "That's not—!"

"We tried our best!" Tama burst out, glaring at him with red cheeks, somehow managing to look affronted and scared at the same time.

"Really?" Takeru set down his chopsticks as he looked around at the defiant looks he was getting. "Then tell me why you all failed each scenario so quickly?"

"Uuu…" Tama had no answer for him.

"…squad leader's fault," Ayamine muttered.

"You…" the Class Rep growled. "It was your fault! If you'd just listen to my orders for once—!"

"We would have just gotten killed faster."

The two girls glared furiously at each other. Tama's gaze swung fretfully back and forth between Chizuru and Ayamine, while Meiya quietly listened with a frown, her eyes closed.

Takeru grimaced. "It was everyone's fault!" Takeru snapped, interrupting the burgeoning fight. "You all failed because you couldn't work together as a squad!"

Silence descended again.

Inwardly, Takeru cursed.

Chizuru was still alienating Ayamine and vice versa. Those two had always gotten along like oil and water, and short of cramming them into a room until they hashed out their issues or killed each other, Takeru didn't know how he could fix it. And even if he wanted to do that, he half suspected that without him around one of them really would end up dead if they were stuck together. Somehow they had come to some kind of uneasy truce in the last world, but he had no idea how it had really happened.

The team didn't just consist of those two either.

Tama was too timid to speak up when Chizuru and Ayamine butted heads, Meiya remained too aloof from her squad mates, and Mikoto—the biggest space cadet on a squad of full of weirdoes—was languishing in a hospital bed.

Somehow, he had to bind them into a team again. But how in the world was he going to fix their teamwork without being part of the team? It seemed like he was just making things worse at the moment despite his efforts. How was he going to get them to see that they couldn't just do their own thing if they wanted to pass the evaluation and, in the long term, survive on the battlefield?

Takeru needed them to survive.

But he couldn't protect them by himself. He'd learned that lesson…

A light bulb blinked to life in his head. That was right. He'd almost forgotten the words he'd first heard from the Class Rep.

"Until four years ago… my own life was more precious to me than anything else," Takeru broke the silence.

Had it really been four years since his first journey to this world? Takeru wasn't really sure. He had no way of knowing when his first journey actually was, given how scrambled his memories of that experience was. His subjective sense of time was an utter mess. It seemed like it had only been a few days, and at the same time it felt like it had been lifetimes ago.

Takeru shook off the train of thought, focusing on the conversation again, "It's still important to me, but I understand now that there are things I have to protect even if it means putting myself in harm's way."

The last time Takeru had said those words, he really hadn't understood a thing. At that time, with his memories of the world after Alternative V locked away, he hadn't really known what putting himself in harm's way meant, nor what it really meant to protect something.

He had lost a lot of precious things learning those lessons.

But, now… now he knew exactly what he was saying and how heavy those words really were. And he was still able to say those words and mean them, despite their weight.

"Even if I want to protect myself more than anything else, and even if there are other things I hold dear, I can't do it alone."

Kashgar could not be conquered alone. He couldn't save his friends all by himself. Shirogane Takeru needed his comrades in order to save the things he held dear.

Chizuru gasped softly, her green eyes widening behind the clear round lenses of her glasses as his words struck her. Takeru smiled faintly at her. It was her words he was borrowing, after all.

"I don't think it's possible to beat the BETA unless a lot of people with strong wills get together and work as a team." Takeru's hands tightened into fists. "If one of us fails, then what they lose…" he glanced around at his friends, meeting their gazes one by one, "…will affect us all."

Takeru's palms were slightly damp with nervous sweat. He relaxed his fists with a conscious effort, his anxiety rising. Had he gotten through to them?

"That's why teamwork is important," he continued earnestly. "You're all individually extraordinary. Even after seeing you all in action for such a short time, I can tell. But… you all saw the results of the exercise earlier, right? No matter how talented you all are, if you can't work together as soldiers, not only will you fail your missions, but you'll all end up dying cheaply!"

He took a breath, restraining his passion. Takeru cared way too much, but he couldn't let them see it, not so soon.

"You can't survive alone against the BETA," he concluded quietly. "If you want to pass the evaluation and become TSF pilots… if you want to protect the things that are important to you… if you want to make a difference in this war… you can't do it alone."

The girls stared at him in silence. He didn't know if that was a good sign or a bad one.

"…I…" Tama timidly spoke after what seemed like an eternity. "…I understand!" Tama offered hesitantly, nodding several times as if to prove her sincerity. He resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle her hair.

Takeru smiled faintly at her, "…I'm glad."

The pink haired girl beamed.

Slouching, Takeru sighed softly. He didn't remember the speech being so draining before. But then… he had experienced a lot of things since then. His words had gained entirely new dimensions of meaning to him.

"You're right…" the Class Rep nodded slowly. "Let's work hard together!"

"Indeed," Meiya smiled in agreement.

Even Ayamine seemed to unwind, her earlier irritation bleeding away.

It looked like his point had gotten through. Now he could relax a bit.

"Now that that's out of the way…" Takeru straightened and looked at Chizuru intensely.

"What is it this time?" Chizuru asked uneasily.

"…_can I call you Class Rep?"_

"…_huh?!"_

A memory danced in front of Takeru's eyes, a bright and happy exchange... teasing between friends to break the tension.

A lump formed in Takeru's throat. No, he couldn't very well do that again, could he?

After all, these girls weren't his friends. Not yet.

To them, he was just a veteran passing along some hard earned wisdom.

"…Sir?" the Class Rep prompted.

Takeru wiped the melancholy thoughts from his mind. He smiled sadistically at his cadets, "Now let's go over how you all could have done better in the war game scenarios today. And none of you are leaving until you can get it right!"

#

Half of him had expected that they'd be in the PX the whole night. The teamwork of the squad was pretty awful, and a few words weren't going to instantly change that.

The other half had expected they'd breeze right through the exercises once they made a sincere effort to work together. His girls were amazing, after all.

The reality ended up being somewhere in the middle. Takeru had kept them at the table for a few hours, discussing how they would approach hypothetical combat scenarios—many of which he'd shamelessly lifted from his memories of the Valkyries—as a unit until he was satisfied. By the time Takeru had released them, they had pretty much been the only ones left in the PX except for a handful of others, but it wasn't as late as he'd feared they would finish.

After leaving the PX and cleaning up in his room for a while, Takeru quietly slipped out and headed towards the next item on his agenda, meeting Kasumi again.

Yashiro Kasumi.

A young esper produced by the Soviet Union's Alternative III and a key player in Alternative IV.

Not only was Kasumi a critical part of Alternative IV, she was also one of his precious friends. In his world, she had become something like a little sister to him.

A little sister he wasn't actually related to by blood, which in two years had gone from adorable to an amazing ethereal silver-haired beauty that could stop traffic.

…Okay, so maybe there had been something to Yuuko-sensei's accusations after all. But this Kasumi was different, and still firmly in the little sister camp.

He just hoped he could keep his memories from running wild around her.

Takeru made the familiar trek through the base, down to level B19, the heart of the Alternative IV plan.

It was, as always, utterly empty. Takeru could count the number of times he remembered seeing anyone aside from himself, Kasumi, Yuuko, and later Sumika on floor B19 without running out of fingers.

His environment abruptly changed as he entered the door next to Yuuko's office. The boring bare white hallway transforming dramatically into something Takeru had always felt was like the bowels of some sci-fi alien ship. The lights were dim, and dark metal walls loomed ominously, creating a loud echo as his footsteps pierced the oppressive silence.

The door to the brain room opened with a quiet hiss. Takeru's eyes were immediately drawn to the cylinder that dominated the center of the room. A human brain and spinal cord floated in an otherworldly liquid, trapped in a clear, glowing tube that emitted a strange blue light.

_Sumika. _

For a moment, it was all he could think of. His eyes watered.

Kagami Sumika.

His precious childhood friend.

His lover.

His…

Sumika meant so many things to Takeru, he couldn't possibly put it all into words. Takeru's emotions, which he had thought were under control, raged wildly through his chest.

Only a few days ago, she had been right next to him. If he tried, he could still remember the feeling of her soft, warm skin against his.

Not to mention her violent, totally unjustified punches.

And yet, he could also remember the Sumika of this world, screaming, smiling, weeping, moaning…

"…_Takeru-chan. Thank you… so much… so, so much…"_

Dying.

A small, distressed noise startled Takeru. He glanced up, finally taking note of the delicate girl with long silver hair and strange, bunny-like mechanical hair accessories watching him with wide, wary silver eyes.

With an effort, he pushed aside the image of Sumika and smiled at Kasumi.

"Hi," Takeru greeted her with a wave.

Slowly, Kasumi began to back away from him.

"I'm not going to bite."

She paused, her hair accessories twitching. Takeru had always wondered how those things were able to move.

"Nice to meet you," Takeru gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

'_Nice to meet you,' huh? _It felt a bit sad to once again be saying that. How many times would he have to start all over again?

"I'm Shirogane Takeru." No reaction, aside from another twitch of those ear things. "And you are…?" he prompted.

The silence stretched in response. Causality conductor and esper stared at each other, at an impasse.

"…Kasumi…" the girl finally murmured, her voice barely above a whisper. "Yashiro… Kasumi."

"It's nice to meet you, Kasumi," Takeru replied happily, grinning in delight. He stepped towards her, stretching out his hand. "Since it's our first meeting, let's shake hands."

"Shake…" her head tilted.

Takeru reached out and grabbed her small hand, which was warm and soft to the touch. "Shake," he repeated, moving his hand up and down slowly in example. Kasumi made no effort to pull away, her hand pliantly following his.

Making contact like this was important to making friends with Kasumi, all the more because she'd had so little normal human contact over the course of her life. It was up to him to teach her what friendship was like, and to help her create memories of her own to cherish.

After a moment, he released her hand. Kasumi stared up at him expressionlessly, but Takeru thought she seemed a bit more relaxed than before. For some reason, her cheeks seemed to look a bit flushed, but it was probably just his eyes playing tricks on him in the dim light.

"I'm really happy we got to meet," Takeru told her earnestly. "I'll try to come by regularly from now on. Next time, let's do something fun, okay?"

Her bunny ears twitched.

"Great!" Takeru beamed, taking that for assent. "Well, I've got to go talk to Yuuko-sensei, so I'll see you later."

"…bye-bye."

"It's not 'bye-bye,'" Takeru corrected reflexively. "But 'see you later,' okay?"

Kasumi stared inquisitively. At least, that's what it looked like to Takeru.

"We're going to see each other again, so it's 'see you later,'" he explained. "'Bye-bye' makes it sound like we'll never see each other again… it's just too sad."

If pressed, Takeru couldn't really explain where he'd first gotten that impression. He'd probably heard it from some TV show or something when he was a kid. But that was how he felt, irrational as it may have been. He never wanted to hear his friends tell him 'bye' like they were parting for good.

"…see you later."

"Yeah!" he nodded, pleased. "See you later!" he waved before turning to head to Yuuko's office.

Deliberately, he kept himself from looking back, hoping that Kasumi would silently follow like she had before. Kasumi's impressions of him were an important part of winning Yuuko's trust.

"Excuse me, Sensei," Takeru called as he stepped into Yuuko's office. As usual, the place was a mess, with books, papers, and boxes scattered haphazardly across the blue carpeting. Yuuko was scanning through the wooden bookshelf on the right side of the office near her desk when he came in.

She gave him a sidelong glance as he came in, then her eyebrows raised and she turned to face him. "Oh?" she said, looking past Takeru. "What brings you here?"

Kasumi walked silently by Takeru and approached Yuuko, who kneeled down to hear the silver haired girl's whispering. Takeru waited impatiently for their conversation to finish, wanting nothing more than to be able to hear what she was telling Yuuko about him. Yuuko stared over Kasumi's shoulder, smiling slyly at him as she listened to Kasumi's observations.

"Hmm… I see…" Yuuko murmured, her grin widening.

Takeru itched to know what she saw.

The whispering continued a little longer. Finally, Kasumi stepped back pace and Yuuko stood. "Thank you," she said, smiling briefly at the younger girl and patting her head.

Kasumi nodded slightly in response and turned to face Takeru. Takeru stared into her eyes, willing her to tell him what she'd told Yuuko about him. The esper proved to be a tough nut to crack though, merely blinking slightly in the face of his intense physic assault.

"Yashiro says you're mostly normal," Yuuko interrupted Takeru's stare down. She gave him a sidelong glance, unimpressed by Takeru's attempts to cow Kasumi with the power of his mind. "…I have my doubts about that though."

"I don't want to hear that from you!" Takeru forfeited his staring contest with Kasumi to glare at Yuuko.

"So?" Yuuko asked, ignoring his objection. "What is it?"

"Err…" Takeru wondered how to broach the subject. "I wanted to play a game with you."

"Shirogane," Yuuko frowned at him, folding her arms. "I have no time to indulge your lusts right now. Go bother someone else."

"That's not what I—!" Takeru swallowed his protests, catching sight of the amused twitch of Yuuko's lips. "Hah…" Takeru sighed, shaking his head. He had forgotten that the Yuuko of this world could be just as much of a mischievous witch, if not even more so, than the one from his origins. "You know what I mean," he grumbled.

"Such a boring reaction," Yuuko made a disappointed expression.

"Did you want me to flirt with you?" Takeru shot back.

Kasumi twitched, inadvertently breaking the challenging stares the scientist and the solider had begun to exchange. She made a beeline to the door, keeping her eyes averted from Takeru.

When the door hissed shut behind her, Yuuko's expression turned serious. "So what do you really want?"

"Like I said, let's play a game," Takeru huffed. "You have the bag of stuff I had with me when I first came here?"

The professor nodded. "It's on the desk," she gestured. "The electronics you had with you were… interesting. But, tell me… how long will this take?"

"Umm…" Takeru looked up at the ceiling, trying to remember how long it had taken him to beat the game originally. "Maybe around… a week?" he said tentatively. Really, it depended on how much time she could spend per day on it.

"I see," Yuuko frowned. "Shirogane, I'll say this again since it seems you didn't hear me the first time. I don't have time to indulge you right now."

"What?"

"How much free time do you think I have to play games?" Yuuko demanded.

"But, with this, you might be able to complete Alternative IV!" Takeru protested.

"Is there any proof of that?" the professor asked coolly.

"Eh…?" Takeru blinked in realization.

That was right.

He had forgotten this conversation. Before, they'd had it at another time and about a different subject, but essentially… he hadn't yet proven a single thing to Yuuko.

How had he forgotten that fact so quickly?

"I don't know what you were thinking, but I'm still not convinced that your information is trustworthy yet," Yuuko said. "Everything you've told me so far can be explained by delusions, espionage, and good acting. I'm busy working on Alternative IV… do you really think I can just spend a week playing some game, without any proof that anything you've told me is true?"

"…No," Takeru sighed.

He had gotten impatient. No matter how much urgency he felt, Yuuko had to be convinced first. And to do that… he had to wait until he could predict something no human possibly could.

The BETA's attack from Sadogashima on November 11th.

Until then, he couldn't prove a thing in a way that would fully convince Yuuko.

"You're right," Takeru admitted. "I was getting impatient… sorry about that."

"Oh?"

"I will definitely give you your proof soon," Takeru said firmly. "Then… we'll discuss this again."

"I'm looking forward to it," Yuuko said neutrally.

Objective stymied, Takeru could only nod at Yuuko and turn to leave, gritting his teeth in an effort to tamp down on his frustration.

Was that really okay?

Could he really afford to just wait around until the last possible choice?

Yet he had no other options. From Yuuko's perspective, putting aside her critical work on Alternative IV to waste time on some shitty video game for a week made absolutely no sense. Takeru couldn't convince her otherwise until he could show her some proof that his story was not just some delusion of his.

But…

He had to do something.

Takeru stopped at the door.

Something… something…

What could he do?

It had to something that didn't require Yuuko to waste too much time or make any kind of major move that could have repercussions. She wouldn't exert much of her influence or resources on his behalf just yet. Was there such a thing? Was there really a small request that she could fulfill that could somehow save time or improve the future?

"_That's easy. I'll arrange it immediately."_

…There was!

"How long are you going to stand there?" Yuuko asked, sounding annoyed. "I'm kind of busy, you know?"

"Sensei!" Takeru turned around again and walked back towards her.

"…What is it this time?"

"Let's make a new operating system for TSFs!"

"…Hah?" she blinked, nonplussed.

"Last time, we made a new OS for TSFs called the XM3 based on the ability to perform cancels and combos. It can give TSFs a big increase in agility and response time, and let them perform moves that no one here even thinks are possible right now! With that, TSFs can gain a big tactical advantage against the BETA compared to now!"

"…I never know what's going to come out of your mouth next," Yuuko murmured as she put down the file she had been reading and gave him a curious look. "Okay," she sighed. "I'll bite. Tell me the details."

"It's based around cancels and combos," Takeru began.

"Cancels… and combos…?" she made a puzzled sound.

"The current OS has automated safeguards, like the balance stabilization that kicks in when the TSF is about to fall over," Takeru clarified. "But while it's doing that, the TSF can't do anything else. In a combat situation where seconds can be critical, it's a huge waste! So a cancel function would allow the pilot to override those automatic maneuvers."

"I see… so you want to make it possible to input an additional action which would cancel the usual recovery sequence?"

"Right."

"But then you wouldn't be able to recover from a fall, you know?"

"Being able to shoot while falling is more important," Takeru stated firmly.

"Sounds like it will put a big burden on the electronics and the fuselage…" Yuuko muttered. "The mechanics will want to kill you for that."

"If it helps save lives on the battlefield, I don't care."

"Oh? A brave answer," she smiled as if he'd told a funny joke. "And what about combos?"

"It's when a certain series of commands are given with a certain period of time, making the unit do something it normally wouldn't. In other words, it's a combination of actions or moves."

"Why a series of commands?" she raised a finger. "Wouldn't it be better to put the combination into a single command?"

"You could, but… if I'm in the middle of a combo, and then something bad happens, I need to be able to cancel the move at my discretion. Otherwise it won't be flexible enough for combat," Takeru explained. "To sum it up, the OS would allow for the complete automation of the most frequently used moves, and the ability for the pilot to cancel the TSF's automatic actions at any time."

"I see… and you think I can do all of that?"

"I know you can," Takeru placed his hands on her desk and leaned forward. "We did it before, after all. You and Kasumi were about to design it in just a few days after I gave you the idea, and with my piloting data, we refined it to the point it could be used by everyone in no time."

"Hmm…" she made a thoughtful noise. "So, how did I do it?"

"I'm sure you already have an idea," Takeru said. "You should have one, right? A computer with parallel processing capabilities fast enough to control the movements of a TSF while acting on the thoughts and commands of a human pilot."

For an instant, Yuuko's expression tightened, her violet eyes narrowing sharply. Then she sighed, her expression relaxing, and smiled ruefully. "Sometimes you blurt out scary things," she murmured. "Really… I used something like that for a TSF?"

"With that, you can raise a TSF's processing power enough to handle the concepts of the new OS." He wasn't entirely sure what that even was, though he knew it had to have been some kind of computer Yuuko had been developing for the 00 Unit. It hadn't been enough for that purpose, but it was more than capable of handling a TSF.

"It's quite an interesting story," Yuuko said finally. "But… I've never heard anything about the current TSF operating systems being lacking. Do you have any proof that this isn't just another waste of my time?"

"Yes," Takeru nodded. "You still have the data from the simulator courses you had me run?"

"It was interesting to see you in action, but… how does your performance help your argument for a new OS? You didn't seem to have any trouble at all fighting with the current one."

"You have the control logs?" Takeru asked.

"Of course," she turned her chair again and typed a few commands into her computer. The control logs appeared on the monitor.

"Okay," Takeru walked up next to her and pointed a finger at the monitor. "See here, where I boost jumped? Here's where…"

It was a bit tough to explain all the concepts to someone who had never piloted a TSF before, but Yuuko grasped the concepts relatively quickly. She was a genius, after all.

"…I see," she said finally, once he had finished making his case using examples from his simulated combat data. Yuuko adopted a thoughtful pose, staring off into space for a few moments. "All right," she nodded. "I guess I can come up with something in my spare time."

"Really?!" Takeru exclaimed.

"I just said so, didn't I? No need to shout."

"Thank you very much!" Takeru was about to burst from glee.

Maybe this wouldn't help him change events much, but if they could perfect the new OS faster, then… perhaps some lives would be saved that otherwise would have been lost. Or maybe nothing would change.

No. He couldn't think like that.

Takeru was finally doing something.

The world _would_ change, little by little.

#

Muv-Luv was the created by Age, not me. All the concepts and characters from the franchise are theirs. This is a non-profit work of fiction.

Author's Notes:

Thanks for reading the second chapter of Breaking the Tide. I'd also like to say thank you to everyone who has left a comment or a review about the story so far. I really appreciate all your feedback.

I proofread this chapter by myself, so there may be (or rather, almost certainly will be) mistakes that I missed. If you see any, I'd be grateful if you pointed them out so I can fix them. And of course, I always want to hear any other thoughts you may have about the story. Any comments and/or criticism you have on grammar, spelling, or the story in general would be highly appreciated.


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